Emergent Self-Assembly

Abstract

Significance: The self-assembly of a giant sphere-shaped complex comprised of 24 Pd 2+ ions and 48 bidentate ligands (1a-c) is reported. In addition to confirming the structure of this multicomponent system by X-ray crystallography, the authors also show the system has a critical dependence on the bond angle of the bridging ligand. Replacing the central thiophene unit with a furan (exchanging 2 for 1) results in the exclusive formation of Pd 12 2 24 polyhedra.Comment: This work is a landmark demonstration of the power of self-assembly as a tool for creating complex nanoscale materials. It is particularly remarkable that a relatively small difference in the ligand bend angle (149° in 1 vs. 127° in 2) can have such a profound effect on the final molecular architecture.