Let's Sort It Out: Self-Sorting of Covalent Organic Cage Compounds

Dynamic covalent self-assembly of small and rigid precursors into cage-type architectures can serve as a powerful strategy for the formation of molecular porous units. In order to enhance the functionality of suchlike nanostructures, formation of complex multicomponent assemblies with high spatial precision, and on-demand control of both reversible assembly and disassembly is highly desirable. Here we highlight some of our most recent achievements on the size-specific synthesis and self-sorting properties within a series of covalent organic cage compounds and the stimuli-responsive assembly of supramolecular cages assembled by boron-nitrogen dative bonds. 1 Introduction 2 Self-Sorting of Covalent Organic Cages 3 Stimuli-Responsive Cages 4 Conclusion and Outlook