Anthracene-containing tetralactam macrocycles are prepared and found to have an extremely high affinity for squaraine dyes in chloroform (log Ka = 5.2). Simply mixing the two components produces highly fluorescent, near-infrared inclusion complexes in quantitative yield. An X-ray crystal structure shows the expected hydrogen bonding between the squaraine oxygens and the macrocycle amide NH residues, and a high degree of cofacial aromatic stacking. The kinetics and thermodynamics of the assembly process are very sensitive to small structural changes in the binding partners. For example, a macrocycle containing two isophthalamide units associates with the squaraine dye in chloroform 400,000 times faster than an analogous macrocycle containing two 2,6-dicarboxamidopyridine units. Squaraine encapsulation also occurs in highly competitive media such as mixed aqueous/organic solutions, vesicle membranes, and the organelles within living cells. The highly fluorescent inclusion complexes possess emergent properties; that is, as compared to the building blocks, the complexes have improved chemical stabilities, red-shifted absorption/emission maxima, and different cell localization propensities. These are useful properties for new classes of near-infrared fluorescent imaging probes.

Pseudorotaxane complexes of squaraine dyes and tetralactam macrocycles are converted into permanently interlocked rotaxane structures using copper-catalyzed and copper-free cycloaddition reactions with bulky stopper groups. The photophysical properties of the encapsulated squaraine depend on the structure of the macrocycle. In one case, squaraine rotaxanes are produced in near-quantitative yields and with intense near-IR fluorescence. In another case, squaraine fluorescence is greatly diminished upon macrocyclic encapsulation but the signal can be restored by dye displacement with anions.

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Molecular reactors are miniature vessels for the assembly of reactants at the molecular level, in order to change the nature of chemical transformations. It seems probable that those that will find most immediate applications are those that change product ratios or give products which would not readily form in the absence of the reactors, and thereby afford easy access to materials that are otherwise difficult to obtain. Molecular machines consist of interrelated parts with separate functions and perform some kind of work, at the molecular level. Practical examples are likely to be relatively uncomplicated and not based on individual functions of single-molecule devices. Instead they will probably rely on extensive redundancy of the molecular components and their interactions and reactions, as well as of the machines themselves.

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Diffusion coefficients of the chloride ion in NaCl have been measured between 300° and 700°C using an isotopic exchange method. The concentrations of cation impurities were deduced from electrical conductivity measurements over the same temperature range. In the extrinsic region, the diffusion coefficients do not decrease with increasing amounts of cation impurity to the extent required for diffusion by single vacancies. The general conclusion that diffusion occurs both by single vacancies and by vacancy pairs agrees with that reached earlier by Laurance. Analyses of the experimental results in the intrinsic region yield for single vacancy anion diffusion Da=1.1×e−1.92/kT cm2 sec−1 and for vacancy pair diffusion Dp=363×e−2.37/kT cm2 sec−1, and the activation energies, which are given in electron volts, agree well with theoretical estimates. Large variations were observed in the anion diffusion coefficients for crystals doped with Ca++; the cause cannot be established definitely.