Archimedean solids: Transition metal mediated rational self-assembly of supramolecular-truncated tetrahedra

Department of Chemistry, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112

Edited by George M. Whitesides, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and approved December 6, 1999 (received for review June 24, 1999)

Abstract

A family of nanoscale-sized supramolecular cage compounds with a polyhedral framework is prepared by self-assembly from tritopic building blocks and rectangular corner units via noncovalent coordination interactions. These highly symmetrical cage compounds are described as face-directed, self-assembled truncated tetrahedra with T_d symmetry.

Footnotes

↵ * To whom reprint requests should be addressed. E-mail: stang{at}chemistry.utah.edu.
This paper was submitted directly (Track II) to the PNAS office.
Article published online before print: Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 10.1073/pnas.030264697.
Article and publication date are at www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.030264697