Catenation and Aggregation of Multi‐Cavity Coordination Cages

A series of metal‐mediated cages, having multiple cavities, was synthesized from Pd^II cations and tris‐ or tetrakis‐monodentate bridging ligands and characterized by NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and X‐ray methods. The peanut‐shaped [Pd₃L¹₄] cage deriving from the tris‐monodentate ligand L¹ could be quantitatively converted into its interpenetrated [5Cl@Pd₆L¹₈] dimer featuring a linear {[Pd‐Cl‐]₅Pd} stack as an unprecedented structural motif upon addition of chloride anions. Small‐angle neutron scattering (SANS) experiments showed that the cigar‐shaped assembly with a length of 3.7 nm aggregates into mono‐layered discs of 14 nm diameter via solvophobic interactions between the hexyl sidechains. The hepta‐cationic [5Cl@Pd₆L¹₈] cage was found to interact with polyanionic oligonucleotide double‐strands under dissolution of the aggregates in water, rendering the compound class interesting for applications based on non‐covalent DNA binding.