Combining the properties of transition metals with the dynamic properties of mechanically interlocked molecules has the potential to create chemical systems with a variety of unique applications, the scope of which, are just beginning to be explored. However, the synthesis of such sophisticated ligands and their transition metal complexes still present a major challenge for synthetic inorganic chemists.
In their Dalton Transactions Hot Article Stephen Loeb and Darren Mercer introduce a practical method of incorporating inert metal ions directly into an interlocked species by constructing a ligand that is itself a permanently interlocked rotaxane. Read more about this clever synthesis in their Dalton Transactions Hot Communication:
Complexes of a [2]rotaxane ligand with terminal terpyridine groups
Darren J. Mercer and Stephen J. Loeb
Dalton Trans., 2011, 40, 6385-6387DOI: 10.1039/C1DT10569H
