Synthesis of Metal-Organic Complex Arrays

The Merrifield solid-phase peptide synthesis technique has been adapted to the synthesis of homo- and heterometallic metal organic complex arrays (MOCAs). A terpyridine-appended and Fmoc-protected L-tyrosine derivative was metalated with Pt(II), Rh(III), or Ru(II) ions in solution and sequentially coupled at the surface of functionalized polymeric resin to give a metal complex triad (Rh-Pt-Ru), tetrad (Ru-Rh-Pt-Pt), pentad (Rh-Pt-Ru-Pt-Rh), and hexad (Rh-Pt-Ru-Pt-Rh-Pt) with specific metal sequence arrangements. These were cleaved from the resin, and their character was confirmed by mass spectrometry.