Controllable Coordination Self‐Assembly Based on Flexibility of Ligands: Synthesis of Supramolecular Assemblies and Stimuli‐Driven Structural Transformations

Abstract

Coordination self‐assemblies have attracted more and more attentions from chemists because of their beautiful structures and wide applications, and a number of excellent reviews that focus on either synthesis or application have been published. This paper will hightlight how to controllablly construct supramolecular assemblies based on flexibility of ligands driven by different external stimuli. Herein, not only various discrete metal‐organic aggregates including M2L2 type metallocycles, M2L4/M2L6/M3L2/M6L4/M6L8 type metallocages have been prepared, but also many well‐organized ensembles based on such new‐formed discrete aggretates have been further assembled driven by suitable external stimuli. Also, controllable self‐assembly processes accompanied with structure changes have been developed. It is expected that this paper will provide a potential strategy for developing novel coordination assemblies that can be comparable to biomacromolecules from organism.

Flexible Vertex Engineers the Controlled Assembly of Distorted Supramolecular Tetrahedral and Octahedral Cages

“…Therefore, the introduction of additional interactions, such as covalent interactions, would provide vertexes with higher flexibility and distorted characteristic and thus access to unconventional supramolecular cages [36]. In particular, if the variable angles at a flexible vertex could be tuned by an external stimulus, such as a guest molecule, the controllable construction of diverse supramolecular cage architectures would be more readily accessible [5,[37][38][39][40].…”