New ruthenium(II) complexes of 2,2′:6′,2″-terpyridine derivatives as supramolecular building blocks

Multicomponent Self-Assembly of Metallo-Supramolecular Macrocycles and Cages through Dynamic Heteroleptic Terpyridine Complexation

Spontaneous formation of the heteroleptic cadmium(II) bis(terpyridine) complex under ambient conditions can be achieved by a combination of 6,6''-di(2,6-dimethoxylphenyl)-substituted and unsubstituted terpyridine-based ligands. Building on this dynamic heteroleptic complexation, diverse metallo-supramolecular macrocycles and cages were readily assembled in quantitative yields from the predesigned multicomponent systems. The complementary ligation reinforced self-recognition to facilitate the shape-dependent self-sorting of a four-component dynamic library into two well-defined parallelograms. In addition, the subtle lability difference between homoleptic and heteroleptic complexes led to the site-selective Cd^II -Zn^II transmetalation in the Sierpiński triangle. Facile construction of a dodecanuclear tetrahedral metallocage was also realized by using two self-recognizable tritopic building blocks. The photophysical study of the metallo-supramolecules assembled from the d¹⁰ metal ions revealed intense ligand-based photoluminescence in solution. The self-assembly strategy described here provides an efficient methodology for building pre-programmable, sophisticated supramolecular architectures furnished with photoactivity.

Rage Against Conformity: Ruthenium(ɪɪ) Bisterpyridine Complexes Respond to Crystal Engineering Instructions with Whelming Results

Four heteroleptic ruthenium(ii) complexes of 4′-functionalised 2,2′:6′,2′′-terpyridine are reported, along with their solid-state single-crystal X-ray structures. The complexes feature complementary hydrogen-bond donor (phenol) and acceptor (pyridyl) groups designed to assemble into one-dimensional polymers. In one example, the system obeys the programmed instructions to form a one-dimensional, self-complementary hydrogen-bonded polymer. In one other example, a water-bridged hydrogen-bonded polymer is formed. In the remaining two structures, aryl–aryl interactions dominate the intermolecular interactions, and outweigh the contribution of intermolecular hydrogen bonding.