Molecular Borromean rings

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Schematic of a molecular borromean ring

Molecular Borromean rings are the molecular pendants of Borromean rings. The study of Borromean links is part of mechanically-interlocked molecular architectures. One Borromean ring system reported in 2004 is made up of macrocycles formed from 2,6-diformylpyridine and diamine compounds complexed with zinc. ¹.

This compound was synthesized from two building blocks: 2,6-diformylpyridine and a diamine containing a 2,2'-bipyridine group. Zinc acetate is added as the template for the reaction, resulting in one zinc in each of a total of 6 pentacoordinate complexation sites. Trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) is added to catalyse the imine bond-forming reactions. The preparation of the tri-ring Borromeate involves a total 18 precursor molecules and is only possible because the building blocks self-assemble through 12 aromatic pi-pi interactions and 30 zinc to nitrogen dative bonds. Because of these interactions, the Borromeate is thermodynamically the most stable reaction product out of potentially many others, and because all the reactions that take place are equilibria, the Borromeate is the predominant reaction product.

Reduction with sodium borohydride in ethanol affords the neutral Borromeand ². True to a Borromean system, cleavage of just one imine bond (to an amine and an orthoester) in this structure breaks the mechanical bond between the three constituent macrocycles, releasing the other two individual rings.

From left to right: Zinc complex with pyridine group and orthogonal bipyridine groups in Borromeate. Reduction to Borromeand with removal of zinc coordination. Bond cleavage of imine to orthoether by action of ethanol

[edit] See also

• Dynamic covalent chemistry

[edit] External links

• Three rings in an inseparable union Michel Freemantle Chemical & Engineering News May 31, 2004 Volume 82, Number 22 p. 5 Article
• Borromean chemistry overview website

[edit] References

• ¹ Molecular Borromean Rings Kelly S. Chichak, Stuart J. Cantrill, Anthony R. Pease, Sheng-Hsien Chiu, Gareth W. V. Cave, Jerry L. Atwood, J. Fraser Stoddart Science, Vol 304, Issue 5675, 1308-1312 , 28 May 2004 Abstract
• ² Nanoscale Borromean links for real Andrea J. Peters, Kelly S. Chichak, Stuart J. Cantrill and J. Fraser Stoddart Chemical Communications, 2005, (27), 3394 - 3396 Abstract