Angewandte
Chemie
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201108731
Self-Assembly
Self-Assembly of M L Polyhedra Based on Empirical Prediction**
2
4
48
Jens Bunzen, Junji Iwasa, Pia Bonakdarzadeh, Eri Numata, Kari Rissanen,* Sota Sato,* and
Makoto Fujita*
Self-assembly of giant coordination polyhedra from metal
ions and bridging ligands is one of the intriguing topics in
[
1–3]
current chemistry.
In theory, the structures of the poly-
hedra can be predicted based on the analysis of the
coordination geometry at the metal and the bridging angles
[4]
of the ligands. In reality, however, unpredicted structures
often appear because molecular components are much more
flexible than expected and metal centers can permit consid-
[
5,6]
erable deviation in their coordination angles.
when the number of the components is considerably large
more than about 50), the prediction of self-assembled
structures becomes increasingly difficult or impossible.
In particular,
(
[7]
Recently, an M L cuboctahedron and an M L
rhombicuboctahedron were constructed from very similar
ligands 1 and 5, respectively, upon complexation with Pd ions
1
2
[
24
8]
24 48
II
Figure 1. Self-assembly of M L and M24L48 polyhedra in which the
1
2 24
(
Figure 1). The prediction of these two structures by theory
metal centers define a cuboctahedron and a rhombicuboctahedron,
respectively. a) Representation. b) Structural formulae of ligands 1–5
with their bend angles. Angle spans used to predict the formation of
M L and M24L are indicated below the formulae.
was not possible, but when mixed ligands (1 + 5) were
subjected to metal complexation, we observed the critical
switch of the resultant structures from M L to M L at the
12 24
48
1
2
24
24 48
mixing ratios of 1:5 = 8:2 ꢀ 7:3, where the averaged ligand
[
8]
[9]
bend angle varies from 131 to 1348. We assumed that the
most important parameter that controls the resultant struc-
tures was the bend angle q of the ligands and predicted that
the critical structural switch would occur at around q = 131–
the values of 1358, 1438, and 1478, respectively. These values
fit nicely into the angle span that predicts the formation of
M L (Figure 1b). The larger bend angle in 4 than 2 is
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4
48
probably due to the steric demand of the N-methyl substitu-
ent in 4 that pushes the two pyridyl groups apart. These
ligands could be easily prepared in relatively few steps by
using Suzuki cross-coupling (for 2 and 4) or [3+2] isocyanide–
olefin cycloaddition (for 3) as key reactions (for details, see
the Supporting Information).
1
348 if the bend angle was chemically modulated (Figure 1b).
Herein, we show that this simple empirical prediction is
applicable for self-assembly from ligands 2–4. By referring the
bend angles of these ligands to the empirical scale in
Figure 1b, we predicted the self-assembly of M L , the
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4
48
largest hitherto known coordination polyhedron, from these
ligands 2–4.
The bend angle of ligand 4 is 1478, which is close to that of
5. Therefore, formation of M L is expected from this ligand.
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4
48
DFT calculations (B3LYP/6-31G*) revealed that the
angles between the pyridine rings of ligands 2, 3, and 4 have
When ligand 4 was treated with Pd(NO ) in [D ]DMSO
3 2 6
(708C for 3 h), the selective formation of M L complex 6
2
4
48
was indicated by NMR spectroscopy (Figure 2) and CSI-
[
10]
MS (Figure 3). The roughly spherical M L complex 6 has
2
4
48
[
*] Dr. J. Bunzen, P. Bonakdarzadeh, Prof. K. Rissanen
Department of Chemistry, NanoScience Center
University of Jyvꢀskylꢀ
P.O. Box 35, 40014 Jyvꢀskylꢀ (Finland)
E-mail: kari.t.rissanen@jyu.fi
a rhombicuboctahedral symmetry and offers the ligands two
different positions in the framework, which can be seen from
two sets of signals in the H NMR spectrum of the complex
1
(Figure 2a). The signals show downfield shifts (particularly
J. Iwasa, E. Numata, Dr. S. Sato, Prof. M. Fujita
Department of Applied Chemistry, School of Engineering
The University of Tokyo
Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656 (Japan)
E-mail: ssato@appchem.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp
for pyridine a protons: Dd = 0.61 ppm), which is indicative
of the formation of Pd complexes. Furthermore, the signals
Pya
II
are broadened, indicating the successful formation of a huge
structure. In DOSY, the observation of a single band at
logD = ꢁ10.60 confirmed the single product formation (Fig-
ꢁ
ure 2d). Ultrahigh-resolution CSI-MS of 6 (BF4 salt) showed
[
**] This work was supported by KAKENHI (MEXT), the Strategic
Japanese–Finnish Cooperative Program (JST-Academy of Finland),
and The Academy of Finland. The synchrotron X-ray experiments
were performed at AS, KEK, and SPring-8.
n+
a series of prominent peaks for [Mꢁn(BF )] (n = 15–22),
4
with expected isotopic distributions, from which the molec-
ular weight of 6 (18027.21 Da) was determined (Figure 3).
Ligand 3 has a slightly smaller bend angle (1438), from
which M L formation is still predicted. A disadvantage
2
4
48
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 3161 –3163
ꢀ 2012 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
3161