A curved host and second guest cooperatively inhibit the dynamic motion of corannulene

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-24344-w

Authors: Yang Yang (University of Cambridge; Jiangsu Normal University) , Tanya K. Ronson (University of Cambridge) , Zifei Lu (University of Cambridge) , Jieyu Zheng (University of Cambridge) , Nicolas Vanthuyne (Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS) , Alexandre Martinez (Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS) , Jonathan R. Nitschke (University of Cambridge)
Co-authored by industrial partner: No

Type: Journal Paper
Journal: Nature Communications , VOL 12

State: Published (Approved)
Published: July 2021
Diamond Proposal Number(s): 21497

Abstract: Biomolecular systems show how host–guest binding can induce changes in molecular behavior, which in turn impact the functions of the system. Here we report an artificial host–guest system where dynamic adaptation during guest binding alters both host conformation and guest dynamics. The self-assembled cage host employed here possesses concave walls and a chirotopic cavity. Complementarity between the curved surfaces of fullerenes and the inner surface of the host cavity leads the host to reconfigure stereochemically in order to bind these guests optimally. The curved molecule corannulene undergoes rapid bowl-to-bowl inversion at room temperature. Its inversion barrier is increased upon binding, however, and increased further upon formation of a ternary complex, where corannulene and a cycloalkane are both bound together. The chiral nature of the host also leads to clear differences in the NMR spectra of ternary complexes involving corannulene and one or the other enantiomer of a chiral guest, which enables the determination of enantiomeric excess by NMR.

Subject Areas: Chemistry


Instruments: I19-Small Molecule Single Crystal Diffraction

Added On: 07/07/2021 10:51

Documents:
s41467-021-24344-w.pdf

Discipline Tags:

Inorganic Chemistry Chemistry

Technical Tags:

Diffraction Single Crystal X-ray Diffraction (SXRD)