A Triphasic Sorting System: Coordination Cages in Ionic Liquids

Angela B Grommet; Jeanne L Bolliger; Colm Browne; Jonathan R Nitschke

doi:10.1002/anie.201505774

A Triphasic Sorting System: Coordination Cages in Ionic Liquids

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2015 Dec 7;54(50):15100-4. doi: 10.1002/anie.201505774. Epub 2015 Oct 23.

Authors

Angela B Grommet¹, Jeanne L Bolliger¹, Colm Browne^{1

2}, Jonathan R Nitschke³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge, CB2 1EW (UK) http://www-jrn.ch.cam.ac.uk.
² Current Address: School of Chemistry, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL (UK).
³ Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge, CB2 1EW (UK) http://www-jrn.ch.cam.ac.uk. jrn34@cam.ac.uk.

PMID: 26494225
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201505774

Abstract

Host-guest chemistry is usually carried out in either water or organic solvents. To investigate the utility of alternative solvents, three different coordination cages were dissolved in neat ionic liquids. By using (19) F NMR spectroscopy to monitor the presence of free and bound guest molecules, all three cages were demonstrated to be stable and capable of encapsulating guests in ionic solution. Different cages were found to preferentially dissolve in different phases, allowing for the design of a triphasic sorting system. Within this system, three coordination cages, namely Fe4 L6 2, Fe8 L12 3, and Fe4 L4 4, each segregated into a distinct layer. Upon the addition of a mixture of three different guests, each cage (in each separate layer) selectively bound its preferred guest.

Keywords: coordination cages; encapsulation; host-guest systems; ionic liquid; supramolecular chemistry.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't