Transition metal catalysis plays an important role in both industry and in academia where selectivity, activity and stability are crucial parameters to control. Next to changing the structure of the ligand, introducing a confined space as a second coordination sphere around a metal catalyst has recently been shown to be a viable method to induce new selectivity and activity in transition metal catalysis. In this review we focus on supramolecular strategies to encapsulate transition metal complexes with the aim of controlling the selectivity via the second coordination sphere. As we will discuss, catalyst confinement can result in selective processes that are impossible or difficult to achieve by traditional methods. We will describe the template-ligand approach as well as the host-guest approach to arrive at such supramolecular systems and discuss how the performance of the catalyst is enhanced by confining it in a molecular container.

Tuning reagent and catalyst concentrations is crucial in the development of efficient catalytic transformations. In enzyme-catalysed reactions the substrate is bound-often by multiple non-covalent interactions-in a well-defined pocket close to the active site of the enzyme; this pre-organization facilitates highly efficient transformations. Here we report an artificial system that co-encapsulates multiple catalysts and substrates within the confined space defined by an M12L24 nanosphere that contains 24 endohedral guanidinium-binding sites. Cooperative binding means that sulfonate guests are bound much more strongly than carboxylates. This difference has been used to fix gold-based catalysts firmly, with the remaining binding sites left to pre-organize substrates. This strategy was applied to a Au(I)-catalysed cyclization of acetylenic acid to enol lactone in which the pre-organization resulted in much higher reaction rates. We also found that the encapsulated sulfonate-containing Au(I) catalysts did not convert neutral (acid) substrates, and so could have potential in the development of substrate-selective catalysis and base-triggered on/off switching of catalysis.

Several important reactions in organic chemistry thrive on stoichiometric formation of phosphine oxides from phosphines. To avoid the resulting burden of waste and purification, cyclic phosphine oxides were evaluated for new catalytic reactions based on in situ regeneration. First, the ease of silane-mediated reduction of a range of cyclic phosphine oxides was explored. In addition, the compatibility of silanes with electrophilic halogen donors was determined for application in a catalytic Appel reaction based on in situ reduction of dibenzophosphole oxide. Under optimized conditions, alcohols were effectively converted to bromides or chlorides, thereby showing the relevance of new catalyst development and paving the way for broader application of organophosphorus catalysis by in situ reduction protocols.

Homogeneous transition-metal catalysis is a crucial technology for the sustainable preparation of valuable chemicals. The catalyst concentration is usually kept as low as possible, typically at mM or μM levels, and the effect of high catalyst concentration is hardly exploited because of solubility issues and the inherent unfavorable catalyst/substrate ratio. Herein, a self-assembly strategy is reported which leads to local catalyst concentrations ranging from 0.05 M to 1.1 M, inside well-defined nanospheres, whilst the overall catalyst concentration in solution remains at the conventional mM levels. We disclose that only at this high concentration, the gold(I) chloride is reactive and shows high selectivity in intramolecular CO and CC bond-forming cyclization reactions.