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  • Template Synthesis of Three...
    Sun, Li‐Ying; Sinha, Narayan; Yan, Tao; Wang, Yi‐Shou; Tan, Tristan T. Y.; Yu, Le; Han, Ying‐Feng; Hahn, F. Ekkehardt

    Angewandte Chemie International Edition, April 23, 2018, Volume: 57, Issue: 18
    Journal Article

    A procedure for the synthesis of three‐dimensional hexakisimidazolium cage compounds has been developed. The reaction of the trigonal trisimidazolium salts H3L(PF6)3, decorated with three N‐olefinic pendants, and silver oxide yielded trinuclear trisilver(I) hexacarbene molecular cylinders of the type Ag3L23+ with the olefinic pendants from the two different tricarbene ligands arranged in three pairs. Subsequent UV irradiation gave three cyclobutane links between the two tris‐NHC ligands in three 2+2 cycloaddition reactions, thereby generating a three‐dimensional hexakis‐NHC ligand. Removal of the metal ions resulted in the formation of three‐dimensional hexakisimidazolium cages with a large internal cavity. All good things come in threes: An efficient template synthesis has been developed for the preparation of three‐dimensional hexakisimidazolium cage compounds starting from trigonal trisimidazolium salts decorated with three N‐olefinic pendants and silver ions as metal templates.