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Strategies for the construction of supramolecular assemblies from poly-NHC ligand precursors

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Abstract

The field of supramolecular assemblies has developed rapidly in the last few decades, thanks in a large part to their diverse applications. These assemblies have been mostly based on Werner-type coordination motifs in which metal centres are coordinated by nitrogen or oxygen donors. Recently, N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligands have been employed as carbon donors not only because of their appealing structures but also due to the extensive applications in catalysis, biomedicine and material science of the resulting assemblies. During the last decade, NHC-based supramolecular assemblies have witnessed rapid growth and extensive application in molecular recognition, luminescent materials and catalysis. For different topological systems, a diverse selection of poly-NHC precursors and synthetic strategies is crucial to precisely control the synthesis of supramolecular architectures. Several synthetic strategies have been developed to synthesise two-dimensional (2D) molecular metallacycles and three-dimensional (3D) metallacages from a wide range of poly-NHC precursors, including a straightforward one-pot strategy, supramolecular transmetalation, stepwise synthesis, an improved one-pot strategy involving self-sorting behaviour of 3D metallacages and a subtle variation strategy of poly-NHC ligand precursors. This review offers a summary of the synthetic strategies applied for the construction of different poly-NHC-based supramolecular assemblies, particularly emphasizes recent progress in the synthesis of large and complex supramolecular assemblies from poly-NHC precursors, and further attention is given to their application in postsynthetic modifications (PSMs), host-guest chemistry, luminescent properties and biomedical applications.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22025107, 21722105, 21771146), the National Youth Top-notch Talent Support Program of China, the Key Science and Technology Innovation Team of Shaanxi Province (2019TD-007, 2019JLZ-02) and the FM&EM International Joint Laboratory of Northwest University.

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  1. Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule Chemistry, FM & EM International Joint Laboratory, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University, Xi’an, 710127, China

    Yang Li, Jian-Gang Yu, Li-Li Ma, Man Li, Yuan-Yuan An & Ying-Feng Han

  2. College of Chemical and Material Engineering, Quzhou University, Quzhou, 324000, China

    Jian-Gang Yu

  3. State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Science, Fuzhou, 350002, China

    Ying-Feng Han

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Li, Y., Yu, JG., Ma, LL. et al. Strategies for the construction of supramolecular assemblies from poly-NHC ligand precursors. Sci. China Chem. 64, 701–718 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-020-9937-4

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