Systematic studies on heteroleptic coordination cages

Abstract

Supramolecular coordination cages based on square-planar Pd(II) cations in combination with bis-monodentate ligands equipped with pyridine, respectively isoquinoline donor groups, form a subclass of coordination cages and assemblies that has been extensively studied. In recent years, efforts towards the development of functional coordination cages have been made, with the usual approach to achieve this goal being the incorporation of a functional backbone followed by careful choice of linker and donor-groups. Tuning the donor-groups and linkers allowed the synthesis of heteroleptic coordination cages by designing shape-complementary ligands (SCA). Herbey, this approach has been utilized to form a wide array of heteroleptic coordination assemblies and analyze them in regard to their structure, solvent susceptibility and functional group tolerance. Furthermore, ion-mobility mass spectrometry has been established as a powerful tool in the analysis of complex mixtures of up to ten structurally related supramolecules.