Metal-Organic Nanocapsules with Functionalized s-Heptazine Ligands

Inorg Chem. 2021 Jan 18;60(2):570-573. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.0c03631. Epub 2020 Dec 23.

Abstract

A metalloorganic capsule was synthesized where the ligand is a derivative of heptazine with three carboxylic groups that are coordinated to CuII cations, forming paddle-wheel motifs. Each nanocapsule is neutral, with 12 CuII centers and 8 ligands adopting a rhombicuboctahedron shape. It has almost 3 nm diameter, and the main intermolecular interactions in the solid are π··· π stacking between the C6N7 heptazine moieties. The nanocapsules can form monolayers deposited on graphite as observed by atomic force microscopy, which confirms their stability in solution.