Giant regular polyhedra from calixarene carboxylates and uranyl

Sara Pasquale, Sara Sattin, Eduardo C. Escudero-Adán, Marta Martínez-Belmonte and Javier de Mendoza ()
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Sara Pasquale: Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ)
Sara Sattin: Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ)
Eduardo C. Escudero-Adán: X-Ray Diffraction Unit, Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ)
Marta Martínez-Belmonte: X-Ray Diffraction Unit, Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ)
Javier de Mendoza: Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ)

Nature Communications, 2012, vol. 3, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Self-assembly of large multi-component systems is a common strategy for the bottom-up construction of discrete, well-defined, nanoscopic-sized cages. Icosahedral or pseudospherical viral capsids, built up from hundreds of identical proteins, constitute typical examples of the complexity attained by biological self-assembly. Chemical versions of the so-called 5 Platonic regular or 13 Archimedean semi-regular polyhedra are usually assembled combining molecular platforms with metals with commensurate coordination spheres. Here we report novel, self-assembled cages, using the conical-shaped carboxylic acid derivatives of calix[4]arene and calix[5]arene as ligands, and the uranyl cation UO22+ as a metallic counterpart, which coordinates with three carboxylates at the equatorial plane, giving rise to hexagonal bipyramidal architectures. As a result, octahedral and icosahedral anionic metallocages of nanoscopic dimensions are formed with an unusually small number of components.

Date: 2012
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1793

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