Modular Assembly of Metal-Organic Super-Containers Incorporating Calixarenes

摘要

A new strategy to design container molecules is presented. Sulfonylcalix[4]arenes, which are synthetic macrocyclic containers, are used as building blocks that are combined with various metal ions and tricarboxylate ligands to construct metal-organic 'super-containers' (MOSCs). These MOSCs possess both endo and exo cavities and thus mimic the structure of viruses. The synthesis of MOSCs is highly modular, robust, and predictable.