The field of metallosupramolecular chemistry has advanced rapidly in recent years. Much work in this area has focused on the formation of hollow self-assembled metalorganic architectures and exploration of the applications of their confined nanospaces. These discrete, soluble structures incorporate metal ions as 'glue' to link organic ligands together into polyhedra.Most of the architectures employed thus far have been highly symmetrical, as these have been the easiest to prepare. Such high-symmetry structures contain pseudospherical cavities, and so typically bind roughly spherical guests. Biomolecules and high-value synthetic compounds are rarely isotropic, highly-symmetrical species. To bind, sense, separate, and transform such substrates, new, lower-symmetry, metal-organic cages are needed. Herein we summarize recent approaches, which taken together form the first draft of a handbook for the design of higher-complexity, lower-symmetry, self-assembled metal-organic architectures.

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We derive design principles for the assembly of rectangular tetramines into Zn 8 L 6 pseudo-cubic coordination cages. Because of the rectangular, as opposed to square, geometry of the ligand panels, and the possibility of either Δ or Λ handedness of each metal center at the eight corners of the pseudo-cube, many different cage diastereomers are possible. Each of the six tetra-aniline subcomponents investigated in this work assembled with zinc(II) and 2formylpyridine in acetonitrile into a single Zn 8 L 6 pseudo-cube diastereomer, however. Each product corresponded to one of four diastereomeric configurations, with T, T h , S 6 or D 3 symmetry. The preferred diastereomer for a given tetraaniline subcomponent was shown to be dependent on its aspect ratio and conformational flexibility. Analysis of computationally modeled individual faces or whole pseudo-cubes provided insight as to why the observed diastereomers were favored.

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We derive design principles for the assembly of rectangular tetramines into Zn8L6 pseudo‐cubic coordination cages. Because of the rectangular, as opposed to square, geometry of the ligand panels, and the possibility of either Δ or Λ handedness of each metal center at the eight corners of the pseudo‐cube, many different cage diastereomers are possible. Each of the six tetra‐aniline subcomponents investigated in this work assembled with zinc(II) and 2‐formylpyridine in acetonitrile into a single Zn8L6 pseudo‐cube diastereomer, however. Each product corresponded to one of four diastereomeric configurations, with T, Th, S6 or D3 symmetry. The preferred diastereomer for a given tetra‐aniline subcomponent was shown to be dependent on its aspect ratio and conformational flexibility. Analysis of computationally modeled individual faces or whole pseudo‐cubes provided insight as to why the observed diastereomers were favored.