Abstract

Macrocyclic compounds and molecular cages are known to act as a good host molecule. Usual macrocyclic host molecules easily and quickly take up a guest species in the cavity, but some molecular cages can permanently confine the guest species in the cavity. This confinement effect depends on the guest size compared with the cage structures, because only the guest species that are smaller than the cage portal can enter and exit the cavity. If we introduce a cap function into the host compounds, we can switch the guest confinement effect; the guest is confined in the cavity when the cap is closed, while the guest freely enters and exits when the cap is open. In order to achieve this open/close function, we designed two new molecular scaffolds based on oligo(saloph)–metal structures.(1,2) In this lecture, guest recognition control behavior of the oligo(saloph) metallo-molecular cages (3) and metallo-macrocycles (4) will be presented.

(1). S. Akine, J. Inclusion Phenom., 2012, 72, 25. (2). S. Akine, T. Nabeshima, Dalton Trans., 2009, 10395. (3). S. Akine, M. Miyashita, T. Nabeshima, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2017, 139, 4631. (4). Y. Sakata, C. Murata, S. Akine, Nature Commun., 2017, 8, 16005.