Abstract
Self-assembled polyhedral structures are common in biology. The coats of many viruses, for example, have a structure based on icosahedral symmetry1. The preparation of synthetic polyhedral molecular assemblies represents a challenging problem, but supramolecular chemistry2,3,4 has now advanced to the point where the task may be addressed. Macromolecular and supramolecular entities of predefined geometric shape and with well-defined internal environments are potentially important for inclusion phenomena5,6,7,8, molecular recognition5,6 and catalysis9. Here we report the use of self-assembly of molecular units driven by coordination to transition-metal ions10 to prepare a cuboctahedron from 20 tridentate and bidentate subunits in a single step. The cuboctahedron is an archimedean semiregular polyhedron that combines square and triangular faces. Our self-assembled polyhedral capsules, characterized by NMR and electrospray mass spectrometry, are around 5 nanometres in diameter.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Horne, R. W. Virus Structure (Academic, New York, (1974).
Lehn, J.-M., Atwood, J. L., Davis, J. E. D., MacNicol, D. D. & Vögtle, F. (eds) Comprehensive Supramolecular Chemistry Vol. I–II;(Pergamon, Oxford, ( 1996).
Lehn, J.-M. Supramolecular Chemistry: Concepts and Perspectives (VCH, Weinheim, (1995).
Stoddard, J. F. (ed.) Monographs in Supramolecular Chemistry (Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, (1989), (1991), (1994–1996).
Fujita, M.et al. Self-assembly of ten molecules into nanometre-sized organic host frameworks. Nature 378, 469– 471 (1995).
Cram, D. J. & Cram, J. M. Container Molecules and Their Guests (Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, (1994).
Cram, D. J., Tanner, M. E. & Thomas, R. The taming of cyclobutane. Angew. Chem. Int. Edn Engl. 30, 1024–1027 (1991).
Meissner, R. S., Mendoza, J. D. & Rebek, J. J Autoencapsulation through intermolecular forces: a synthetic self-assembling spherical complex. Science 270, 1485–1488 (1995).
Kang, J. & Rebek, J. J Acceleration of a Diels-Alder reactions by a self-assembled molecular capsule. Nature 385, 50–52 (1997).
Stang, P. J. & Olenyuk, B. Self-assembly, symmetry and molecular architecture: Coordination as the motif in the rational design of supramolecular metallacyclic polygons and polyhedra. Acc. Chem. Res. 30, 502–518 (1997).
Persky, N. E., Manna, J. & Stang, P. J. Molecular architecture via coordination: Self-assembly of nanoscale platinum containing molecular hexagons. J. Am. Chem. Soc. Soc. 119, 4777–4778 (1997).
Dinur, U. & Hagler, A. T. in Reviews of Computational Chemistry II (eds Lipkwowitz, K. B. & Boyd, D. B.) Ch. 4 (VCH, New York, (1991).
Stejskal, E. O. & Tanner, J. E. Spin diffusion measurements: spin echoes in the presence of a time-dependent field gradient. J. Chem. Phys. 42, 288– 292 (1965).
Hansen, J. P. & McDonald, I. R. Theory of Simple Liquids (Academic, London, (1976).
Insight II 97.0 (Molecular Simulations Inc., SanDieg, CA, 26Ja (1998).
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Supplementary information
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Olenyuk, B., Whiteford, J., Fechtenkötter, A. et al. Self-assembly of nanoscale cuboctahedra by coordination chemistry. Nature 398, 796–799 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/19740
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/19740
This article is cited by
-
The sharp structural switch of covalent cages mediated by subtle variation of directing groups
Nature Communications (2023)
-
A cage-on-MOF strategy to coordinatively functionalize mesoporous MOFs for manipulating selectivity in adsorption and catalysis
Nature Communications (2023)
-
Highly emissive tribenzotriquinacene-based double-rimed nanocube
Nano Research (2023)
-
Luminescent terpyridine-based metallo-supramolecular systems: from design to applications
Science China Chemistry (2023)
-
Free-standing homochiral 2D monolayers by exfoliation of molecular crystals
Nature (2022)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.