Giant, Hollow 2D Metalloarchitecture: Stepwise Self-Assembly of a Hexagonal Supramolecular Nut

A polyterpyridinyl building block-based nutlike hexagonal bismetallo architecture with a central hollow Star of David was assembled by a stepwise strategy. This nanoarchitecture can be viewed as a recursive mathematical form that possesses a supra molecular corner-connected cyclic structure, i.e., a triangle or rhombus at various levels of scale or detail. The key metallo-organic ligand (MOL) with four uncomplexed free terpyridines was obtained by a final Suzuki cross-coupling reaction with a tetrabromoterpyridine Ru dimer. The molecular metallorhombus was prepared by reacting the MOL with a 60 degrees bis-terpyridine and Fe2+. The giant hollow hexagonal nut with a diameter of more than 11 nm and a molecular weight of ca. 33 kDa was obtained in near-quantitative yield by mixing the two types of multi-terpyridine ligands with Fe2+. The supra molecular architecture was characterized by NMR (H-1 and C-13), 2D NMR (COSY and ROESY), and DOSY spectroscopies, high-resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, traveling-wave ion mobility mass spectrometry, and transmission electron microscopy.