Functional Carbazole-Fullerene Complexes: A New Perspective of Carbazoles Acting as Nano-Octopus to Capture Globular Fullerenes

Fullerene host-guest constructs have attracted increasing attention owing to their molecular-level hybrid arrangements. However, the usage of simple carbazolic derivatives to bind with fullerenes is rare. In this research, three novel carbazolic derivatives, containing a tunable bridging linker and carbazole units for the capturing of fullerenes, are rationally designed. Unlike the general concave-convex interactions, fullerenes could interact with the planar carbazole subunits to form 2-dimensional hexagonal/quadrilateral cocrystals with alternating stacking patterns of 1 : 1 or 1 : 2 stoichiometry, as well as the controllable fullerene packing modes. At the meanwhile, good electron-transporting performances and significant photovoltaic effects were realized when a continuous C_60⋅⋅⋅C₆₀ interaction channel existed. The results indicate that the introduction of such carbazolic system into fullerene receptor would provide new insights into novel fullerene host-guest architectures for versatile applications.     

大孔Mo-Ni/Al2O3催化剂的催化裂化柴油加氢性能研究

采用三次纳米自组装合成法,制备了一种以二次纳米自组装Al₂O₃为主体的大孔主客体催化剂FA-40,具有0.78cm³·g^-1的孔容、114m₂·g^-1的比表面积、27nm的平均孔径、6.0nm和40nm的双峰孔结构、孔分布在10~100nm高度集中、低堆积密度为0.56g·cm^-3、活性金属含量高达35.70%。XRD和TEM分析结果显示,活性金属以直径小于2nm的微晶态纳米粒子形式均匀分散于主体表面。采用劣质催化裂化柴油进行20h加氢实验评价,反应趋于稳定时,FA-40的脱硫、脱氮及芳烃饱和率分别达到94.4%、95.5%和67.9%,与F-5相比分别提高了20%、80%和140%。300h的长周期加氢实验表明,FA-40具有良好的加氢性能。     

卤素离子触发亚铁四面体笼的自旋状态转换

合理构筑了3个具有固态自旋交叉特性的亚铁四面体笼状化合物1~3。单晶X射线衍射分析证实了化合物是由6个咪唑席夫碱配体和4个亚铁离子组装形成的边导向封顶胶囊结构。金属中心占据四面体的顶点,而配体组成了四面体的边。这些笼状化合物的内部空腔被咪唑基团环绕,而外部则被取代苯环包围。一个阴离子客体被限域在笼状化合物空腔内,并与笼状化合物主体产生较强的相互作用。当在笼状化合物的乙腈溶液中加入卤素离子（Cl^-和Br^-）时,溶液的颜色和MLCT峰强度会发生明显变化,表明亚铁四面体笼状化合物的自旋状态由低自旋向髙自旋发生了转换。     

Metalla‐Assembled Electron‐Rich Tweezers: Redox‐Controlled Guest Release Through Supramolecular Dimerization

Developing methodologies for on‐demand control of the release of a molecular guest requires the rational design of stimuli‐responsive hosts with functional cavities. While a substantial number of responsive metallacages have already been described, the case of coordination‐tweezers has been less explored. Herein, we report the first example of a redox‐triggered guest release from a metalla‐assembled tweezer. This tweezer incorporates two redox‐active panels constructed from the electron‐rich 9‐(1,3‐dithiol‐2‐ylidene)fluorene unit that are facing each other. It dimerizes spontaneously in solution and the resulting interpenetrated supramolecular structure can dissociate in the presence of an electron‐poor planar unit, forming a 1:1 host–guest complex. This complex dissociates upon tweezer oxidation/dimerization, offering an original redox‐triggered molecular delivery pathway.     

Hierarchical Self‐Assembly of Poly‐Pseudorotaxanes into Artificial Microtubules

Hierarchical self‐assembly of building blocks over multiple length scales is ubiquitous in living organisms. Microtubules are one of the principal cellular components formed by hierarchical self‐assembly of nanometer‐sized tubulin heterodimers into protofilaments, which then associate to form micron‐length‐scale, multi‐stranded tubes. This peculiar biological process is now mimicked with a fully synthetic molecule, which forms a 1:1 host‐guest complex with cucurbit[7]uril as a globular building block, and then polymerizes into linear poly‐pseudorotaxanes that associate laterally with each other in a self‐shape‐complementary manner to form a tubular structure with a length over tens of micrometers. Molecular dynamic simulations suggest that the tubular assembly consists of eight poly‐pseudorotaxanes that wind together to form a 4.5 nm wide multi‐stranded tubule.     

Controlling Gas Selectivity in Molecular Porous Liquids by Tuning the Cage Window Size

Control of pore window size is the standard approach for tuning gas selectivity in porous solids. Here, we present the first example where this is translated into a molecular porous liquid formed from organic cage molecules. Reduction of the cage window size by chemical synthesis switches the selectivity from Xe‐selective to CH₄‐selective, which is understood using ¹²⁹Xe, ¹H, and pulsed‐field gradient NMR spectroscopy.     

Synthesis of Electron‐Deficient Corona[5]arenes and Their Selective Complexation with Dihydrogen Phosphate: Cooperative Effects of Anion–π Interactions

Reported here are the syntheses, conformational structures, electrochemical properties, and noncovalent anion binding of corona[5]arenes. A (3+2) fragment coupling reaction proceeded efficiently under mild reaction conditions to produce a number of novel heteroatom‐ and methylene‐bridged corona[3]arene[2]tetrazine macrocycles. Selective oxidation of the sulfur atom between two phenylene rings afforded sulfoxide‐ and sulfone‐linked corona[5]arenes in good yields. All corona[5]arenes synthesized adopted similar 1,2,4‐alternate conformational structures, forming pentagonal cavities. The cavity sizes and the electronic properties such as redox potentials, were measured with CV and DPV, and were influenced by the different bridging units. As electron‐deficient macrocycles, the acquired corona[3]arene[2]tetrazines served as highly selective hosts, forming complexes with the hydrogen‐bonded dimer of dihydrogen phosphate through cooperative anion–π interactions.     

Enhancement of Ion Pairing of Sr(II) and Ba(II) Salts by a Tritopic Ion-Pair Receptor in Solution

Tritopic ion-pair receptors can bind bivalent salts in solution; yet, these salts have a tendency to form ion-pairs even in the absence of receptors. The extent to which such receptors can enhance ion pairing has however remained elusive. Here, we study ion pairing of M²⁺ (Ba²⁺, Sr²⁺) and X⁻ (I⁻, ClO₄⁻) in acetonitrile with and without a dichlorooxacalix[2]arene[2]triazine-related receptor containing a pentaethylene-glycol moiety. We find marked ion association already in receptor-free solutions. When present, most of the MX⁺ ion-pairs are bound to the receptor and the overall degree of ion association is enhanced due to coordinative, hydrogen-bonding, and anion-π interactions. The receptor shows higher selectivity for iodides but also stabilizes perchlorates, despite the latter are often considered as weakly coordinating anions. Our results show that ion-pair binding is strongly correlated to ion pairing in these solutions, thereby highlighting the importance of taking ion association in organic solvents into account.     

A Photochemical/Thermal Switch Based on 4,4′-Bis(benzimidazolio)stilbene: Synthesis and Supramolecular Properties.

Stilbene derivatives are well-recognised substructures of molecular switches based on photochemically and/or thermally induced (E)/(Z) isomerisation. We combined a stilbene motif with two benzimidazolium arms to prepare new sorts of supramolecular building blocks and examined their binding properties towards cucurbit[n]urils (n=7, 8) and cyclodextrins (β-CD, γ-CD) in water. Based on the ¹H NMR data and molecular dynamics simulations, we found that two distinct complexes with different stoichiometry, i. e., guest@β-CD and guest@β-CD₂, coexist in equilibrium in a water solution of the (Z)-stilbene-based guests. We also demonstrated that the bis(benzimidazolio)stilbene guests can be transformed from the (E) into the (Z) form via UV irradiation and back via thermal treatment in DMSO.     

Measuring the Stability of Supramolecular Complexes in the Proximity of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

The decoration of SWNTs with supramolecular motifs is a common strategy for their subsequent noncovalent functionalization. However, due to the lack of a standard methodology, there are no quantitative measurements showing the extent to which the supramolecular equilibria are affected by one of the host-guest couple being anchored to the SWNT. Here, we use a method we initially developed to quantify association of small organic molecules to the walls of SWNTs to compare association constants of two host-guest systems, a Hamilton receptor-cyanuric acid derivative and a crown ether-ammonium couple, in solution and when the host is covalently attached to the SWNTs. Our data show that association does occur, but the stability of the complexes is significantly affected, as reflected in a sizable reduction in their association constant, when compared to solution.