Construction of a 3D supramolecular network from 2D coordination layers via anion–π interactions and its catalytic properties

Metal-Organic Frameworks as Platform for Lewis-Acid-Catalyzed Organic Transformations

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are highly promising Lewis acid catalysts; they either inherently possess Lewis acid sites (LASs) on it or the LASs can be generated through various post-synthetic methods, the later can be performed in MOFs in a trivial fashion. MOFs are suitable platform for catalysis because of its highly crystalline and porous nature. Moreover, with recent advancements, thermal and chemical stability is not a problem with many MOFs. In this Minireview, an enormous versatility of MOFs, in terms of their microporosity/mesoporosity, size/shape selectivity, chirality, pore size, etc., has been highlighted. These are advantageous for designing and performing various targeted organic transformations. Although, many organic transformations catalyzed by MOFs with LASs have been reported in the recent past. In this Minireview, we have restricted ourselves to four important organic reactions: (i) cyanosilylation, (ii) Diels-Alder reaction, (iii) C-H activation, and (iv) CO₂ -addition. The discussion focuses mostly on the recent reports (42 examples).

The Emergence of Anion-π Catalysis

The objective of this Account is to summarize the first five years of anion-π catalysis. The general idea of anion-π catalysis is to stabilize anionic transition states on aromatic surfaces. This is complementary to the stabilization of cationic transition states on aromatic surfaces, a mode of action that occurs in nature and is increasingly used in chemistry. Anion-π catalysis, however, rarely occurs in nature and has been unexplored in chemistry. Probably because the attraction of anions to π surfaces as such is counterintuitive, anion-π interactions in general are much younger than cation-π interactions and remain under-recognized until today. Anion-π catalysis has emerged from early findings that anion-π interactions can mediate the transport of anions across lipid bilayer membranes. With this evidence for stabilization in the ground state secured, there was no reason to believe that anion-π interactions could not also stabilize anionic transition states. As an attractive reaction to develop anion-π catalysis, the addition of malonic acid half thioesters to enolate acceptors was selected. This choice was also made because without enzymes decarboxylation is preferred and anion-π interactions promised to catalyze selectively the disfavored but relevant enolate addition. Concerning anion-π catalysts, we started with naphthalene diimides (NDIs) because their intrinsic quadrupole moment is highly positive. The NDI scaffold was used to address questions such as the positioning of substrates on the catalytic π surface or the dependence of activity on the π acidity of this π surface. With the basics in place, the next milestone was the creation of anion-π enzymes, that is, enzymes that operate with an interaction rarely used in biology, at least on intrinsically π-acidic or highly polarizable aromatic amino-acid side chains. Electric-field-assisted anion-π catalysis addresses topics such as heterogeneous catalysis on electrodes and remote control of activity by voltage. On π-stacked foldamers, anion-(π) _n-π catalysis was discovered. Fullerenes emerged as the scaffold of choice to explore contributions from polarizability. On fullerenes, anionic transition states are stabilized by large macrodipoles that appear only in response to their presence. With this growing collection of anion-π catalysts, several reactions beyond enolate addition have been explored so far. Initial efforts focused on asymmetric anion-π catalysis. Increasing enantioselectivity with increasing π acidity of the active π surface has been exemplified for enamine and iminium chemistry and for anion-π transaminase mimics. However, the delocalized nature of anion-π interactions calls for the stabilization of charge displacements over longer distances. The first step in this direction was the formation of cyclohexane rings with five stereogenic centers from achiral acyclic substrates on π-acidic surfaces. Moreover, the intrinsically disfavored exo transition state of anionic Diels-Alder reactions is stabilized selectively on π-acidic surfaces; endo products and otherwise preferred Michael addition products are completely suppressed. Taken together, we hope that these results on catalyst design and reaction scope will establish anion-π catalysis as a general principle in catalysis in the broadest sense.

Anion Complexes with Tetrazine-Based Ligands: Formation of Strong Anion-π Interactions in Solution and in the Solid State

Ligands L1 and L2, consisting of a tetrazine ring decorated with two morpholine pendants of different lengths, show peculiar anion-binding behaviors. In several cases, even the neutral ligands, in addition to their protonated HL(+) and H2L(2+) (L = L1 and L2) forms, bind anions such as F(-), NO3(-), PF6(-), ClO4(-), and SO4(2-) to form stable complexes in water. The crystal structures of H2L1(PF6)2·2H2O, H2L1(ClO4)2·2H2O, H2L2(NO3)2, H2L2(PF6)2·H2O, and H2L2(ClO4)2·H2O show that anion-π interactions are pivotal for the formation of these complexes, although other weak forces may contribute to their stability. Complex stability constants were determined by means of potentiometric titration in aqueous solution at 298.1 K, while dissection of the free-energy change of association (ΔG°) into its enthalpic (ΔH°) and entropic (TΔS°) components was accomplished by means of isothermal titration calorimetry measurements. Stability constants are poorly regulated by anion-ligand charge-charge attraction. Thermodynamic data show that the formation of complexes with neutral ligands, which are principally stabilized by anion-π interactions, is enthalpically favorable (-ΔG°, 11.1-17.5 kJ/mol; ΔH°, -2.3 to -0.5 kJ/mol; TΔS°, 9.0-17.0 kJ/mol), while for charged ligands, enthalpy changes are mostly unfavorable. Complexation reactions are invariably promoted by large and favorable entropic contributions. The importance of desolvation phenomena manifested by such thermodynamic data was confirmed by the hydrodynamic results obtained by means of diffusion NMR spectroscopy. In the case of L2, complexation equilibria were also studied in a 80:20 (v/v) water/ethanol mixture. In this mixed solvent of lower dielectric constant than water, the stability of anion complexes decreases, relative to water. Solvation effects, mostly involving the ligand, are thought to be responsible for this peculiar behavior.

Formation of a highly-ordered rigid multichromophoric 3D supramolecular network by combining ionic and coordination-driven self-assembly

A highly-ordered supramolecular network for energy transfer and polarization switching.