Angewandte

Chemie

Communications

In their Communication on the following pages, D. A. Leigh and co-

workers describe a general ligand system for rotaxane complexes of
transition-metal ions that prefer octahedral coordination—a rare
coordination mode for rotaxanes. Simple mixing of the components
at room temperature is sufficient to assemble a broad range of
octahedrally coordinated [2]metallorotaxanes in high yields.

Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2004, 43, 1217 DOI: 10.1002/anie.200353186  2004 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim 1217
Communications
Rotaxanes macrocyclization of a bis-2-nitrobenzenesulfonamide
(NsNH) derivative with 2,6-dibromomethylpyridine to give
A Simple General Ligand System for Assembling the protected macrocycle in 67 % yield. Cyclization of the
Octahedral Metal–Rotaxane Complexes** analogous Boc-protected diamine proceeded with a low yield

Louise Hogg, David A. Leigh,* Paul J. Lusby,

Alessandra Morelli, Simon Parsons, and
Jenny K. Y. Wong

Coordination complexes in which rotaxanes act as

ligands for transition-metal atoms are amongst the
most celebrated examples of mechanically interlocked
molecular level architectures.[1] This is not only because
coordination chemistry makes possible a rich diversity
of structures, but also because the metal atom can be
locked in unusual environments for subsequent electro-
chemical,[2] photochemical[3] and catalysis[4] studies.
Efficient synthetic methods have been developed for
rotaxanes based on tetrahedral and trigonal-bipyrimidal
metal complexes by using the metal-bis-phenanthroline
synthon pioneered in Strasbourg.[1a, b, 5] Herein we
describe a general ligand system for rotaxane complexes
of ions that prefer octahedral coordination—the com-
monest ligand geometry amongst transition metals, but
up to now a rare[6] coordination mode for rotaxanes.
Simple mixing of the components at room temperature
Scheme 1. Five-component self-assembly of octahedral metal(ii)[2]rotaxanes,
is sufficient to assemble a broad range of octahedrally [M(L1L2)](ClO4)2. Reagents and conditions: a) 1,10-dibromodecane, K2CO3,
coordinated [2]metallorotaxanes in excellent yields. The NaI, butanone, reflux, 18 h, 83 %, b) LiAlH4, THF, 0–60 8C, 3 h, 92 %, c) 2-
reactions have few, if any, by-products and proceed nitrobenzenesulfonyl chloride (NsCl), NEt3, CH2Cl2, 18 h, 93 %, d) 2,6-dibro-
under thermodynamic control in the absence of a momethylpyridine, K2CO3, butanone, reflux, 18 h, 67 %, e) mercaptoacetic
catalyst or any other external reagents. acid, LiOH, DMF, 24 h, 80 %.
Catenanes have previously been synthesized around
octahedral metal templates by employing macrocycles
containing tridentate 2,6-diiminopyridine chelating units.[7] (< 20 %) and routes based on ring-closing olefin metathesis to
This system is not well-suited to forming rotaxanes, however, form the C10 chain also proved uncompetitive. The use of
because thread–thread–metal and macrocycle–macrocycle– aniline, rather than benzylamine, in the thread was designed
metal (catenate) complexes can form in competition with the to destabilize the dithread–metal complex with respect to the
desired thread–macrocycle–metal assembly. Replacement of desired interlocked structure (see below).
the macrocycle imine ligand set by nonlabile amine groups Octahedral metal–rotaxane formation was achieved by
removes the possibility of forming catenates and introduces a sequential treatment of L1 with Zn(ClO4)2·6 H2O (0.8 equiv),
structural asymmetry that can potentially be tailored to favor 2,6-diformylpyridine (1 equiv) and (p-aminophenyl)tris(p-
rotaxane formation under dynamic exchange conditions.[8] tert-butylphenyl)methane (2 equiv), Scheme 1. Remarkably,
After exploring several unsuccessful designs, we inves- after 24 h at room temperature no metal-containing species
tigated the chemistry of macrocycle L1, which is conveniently other than the zinc(ii)[2]rotaxane was evident by either
1
prepared on a multigram scale in five steps from readily H NMR or electrospray mass spectrometry and the analyti-
available materials (Scheme 1). The key step to L1 is the cally pure [Zn(L1L2)](ClO4)2 rotaxane was isolated in 92 %
yield by simply washing the crude product with diethyl ether.
[*] L. Hogg, Prof. D. A. Leigh, Dr. P. J. Lusby, A. Morelli, Dr. S. Parsons, The generality of the reaction was explored by using divalent
Dr. J. K. Y. Wong metal ions both across and down the periodic table with
School of Chemistry !
respect to zinc (i.e., Mn Zn and Zn!Hg). Pleasingly, each
University of Edinburgh of [M(L1L2)](ClO4)2 (M = MnII, CoII, NiII, CuII, CdII, HgII)
The King's Buildings, West Mains Road
could be efficiently prepared by using the procedure in
Edinburgh EH9 3JJ (United Kingdom)
Fax: (+ 44) 131-667-9085 isolated yields ranging from 73 to 99 % (Scheme 1). In all
E-mail: [email protected] cases no other metal-containing species could be detected[9]
[**] This work was supported by the European Union Future and after 24 h, which suggests near-quantitative formation of the
Emerging Technology Program MechMol and the EPSRC. interlocked metal-rotaxane complex. Formation of
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW [Fe(L1L2)](ClO4)2 required a longer reaction time and
under http://www.angewandte.org or from the author. gentle heating (CH2Cl2/CH3CN, N2, 40 8C, 2 weeks) and

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2004 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim DOI: 10.1002/anie.200353186 Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2004, 43, 1218 –1218
 Angewandte
Chemie

resulted in a lower yield of rotaxane (57 %). The sluggish rate

of reaction is characteristic of the slow rate of ligand exchange
of low spin d6 metal complexes, but a potentially useful
feature of the slower dynamics is that FeII therefore locks the
rotaxane architecture in a particularly kinetically stable form.
The nonparamagnetic metal–rotaxane complexes all have
similar 1H NMR spectra; those of the zinc(ii)[2]rotaxane
[Zn(L1L2)](ClO4)2 and macrocycle L1 are shown in
Figure 1.[10] The shielding of the HC and HD protons of the
benzyl rings of the macrocycle and several protons of the
thread indicate that extensive intercomponent p stacking
occurs in solution. Single crystals of [Cd(L1L2)](ClO4)2
suitable for investigation by X-ray crystallography were
obtained by slow vapor diffusion of diethyl ether into a
solution of the rotaxane in acetonitrile.[11] The crystal
structure (Figure 2) confirms the interlocked molecular
Figure 2. X-ray crystal structure of [Cd(L1L2)](ClO4)2.[11] Carbon atoms
architecture, the pseudooctahedral geometry of the cadmiu-
of the macrocycle, L1, are shown in light blue and those of the thread,
m(ii) ion, and shows p stacking of both the macrocycle L2, in yellow; oxygen atoms are red; nitrogen dark blue; chlorine
benzylic rings with the pyridyl unit and an imine group of the green; cadmium grey. Hydrogen atoms and a molecule of acetonitrile
thread. are omitted for clarity. Selected bond lengths [I]: Cd-N2 2.40, Cd-N5
The mechanism of the rotaxane-forming reaction provides 2.30, Cd-N11 2.40, Cd-N44 2.52, Cd-N47 2.26, Cd-N53 2.38; other
insight into the reasons for the effectiveness of the ligand selected interatomic distances [I]: N2-N11 4.52, N5-N47 4.52, N44-
N53 4.59; ligand bite angles [8]: N2-Cd-N11 141.5, N44-Cd-N53 139.2.
assembly. When L1 is treated with Zn(ClO4)2·6 H2O (CH2Cl2/
CH3CN, room temperature) followed by the preformed
thread, L2, electrospray mass spectrometry shows that [Zn(L2)2](ClO4)2 in > 95 % yield (Scheme 2). The
within 10 minutes the thread has extracted the zinc(ii) ion [Zn(L2)2](ClO4)2 species is then quantitatively converted to
from the macrocycle to form the dithread complex, the rotaxane [Zn(L1L2)](ClO4)2 over 24 h.[12] Whilst the

Figure 1. Partial 1H NMR spectra (400 MHz, CD3CN, 298 K) of a) macrocycle L1 b) zinc(ii)[2]rotaxane [Zn(L1L2)](ClO4)2 c) demetallated, reduced,
rotaxane L1H4L2.

Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2004, 43, 1218 –1218 www.angewandte.org
2004 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim 1219
Communications
both solution (NMR spectroscopy) and the solid state (X-ray
crystal studies). We believe these favorable secondary inter-
actions are important for the thermodynamic stability of the
rotaxane over the other possible products of the reaction.
The 2,6-diminopyridyl motif imparts high kinetic stability
in metal-coordinated interlocked structures. Tetraimine met-
al(ii) catenates are not demetallated by Na2EDTA (EDTA =
ethylenediaminetetracetate), which required reduction to the
more labile tetraamine catenates for the metal atom to be
extracted.[7] The [M(L1L2)](ClO4)2 rotaxanes, which contain
a combination of imine and amine N donors, do react with
excess Na2EDTA when heated (10 equiv, CH3CN/MeOH,
60 8C, 0.5 h) to remove the metal. However, without the
stabilization provided by metal coordination the rotaxane
decomposes through imine bond exchange and only free
macrocycle and thread are observed experimentally
(Scheme 2, path a). If the rotaxane imine bonds are reduced
beforehand ([Zn(L1L2)](ClO4)2, 10 equiv NaBH4, CH3CN/
MeOH, D, 1.5 h), however, treatment with Na2EDTA
(10 equiv, CH3CN/MeOH, 60 8C, 0.5 h) gives the demetal-
lated, reduced, rotaxane L1H4L2 (88 % yield) with no
evidence of dethreading (Scheme 2, path b). The 1H NMR
of L1H4L2 is shown in Figure 1 c. The downfield shift in the
resonances of the benzyl groups with respect to
[Zn(L1L2)](ClO4)2 indicates that p stacking with the thread
is less pronounced in the demetallated rotaxane in which
there are no coordination bonds to organize the geometry of
the components.
In conclusion, we have developed a general ligand system
for the efficient assembly of [2]rotaxanes around octahedral
metal ions. The five component self-assembly reaction
produces rotaxanes under true thermodynamic control in
excellent yields without the need for large excesses of
reagents, subsequent derivatization to stabilize the rotaxane
architecture, chromatography or any other complicated
purification processes. The system is remarkable in terms of
its simplicity and expands both the range and geometry of
metal ions that can be readily encapsulated within rotaxane
structures.

Scheme 2. Mechanism of formation and reactivity of [Zn(L1L2)](ClO4)2.

Rapid formation of Zn(L2)2 is followed by quantitative conversion to
Zn(L1L2) under thermodynamic control. Demetallation of the rotaxane
Experimental Section
Typical example of octahedral metal(ii)[2]rotaxane formation,
by using Na2EDTA occurs both with (b) and without (a) prior reduction
[Zn(L1L2)](ClO4)2 : Zinc(ii) perchlorate hexahydrate (0.127 g,
of the imine groups.
0.342 mmol) in acetonitrile (5 mL), 2,6-pyridinedicarboxaldehyde
(0.055 g, 0.410 mmol) in acetonitrile (10 mL), and p-aminophenyl-
reversible nature of imine bond formation accounts for the tris(p-tert-butylphenyl)methane (0.413 g, 0.820 mmol) in dichloro-
dynamics of the system, the reasons for the metal–rotaxane methane (10 mL) were added sequentially over five-minute periods
to a solution of L1 (0.200 g, 0.410 mmol) in acetonitrile (10 mL). The
complex being the thermodynamic product rather than the
resulting solution was stirred at room temperature for 24 h, after
dithread–metal complex are rather more subtle. In fact, imine which the solvent was removed under reduced pressure, the crude
N donors often form stronger coordination bonds than the residue dissolved in acetonitrile (30 mL), filtered, and finally the
corresponding amines,[13] which leads to dithread–metal solvent removed under reduced pressure. The crude residue was
complexes being thermodynamically favored in other ligand washed with diethyl ether (30 mL) for 10 min, isolated by filtration
systems we investigated. However, the use of aniline rather and dried in air to give [Zn(L1L2)](ClO4)2 as a bright yellow solid
than, for example, benzylamine groups in the thread does not (0.582 g, yield = 92 %). Mp 266 8C (decomp). 1H NMR (400 MHz,
CD3CN, 298 K): d = 1.32 (s, 54 H, C(CH3)3), 1.48–1.68 (bm, 12 H,
allow geometries in which the dithread–metal complex can
alkyl), 1.79 (m, 4 H, OCH2CH2), 3.84 (br, 4 H, OCH2), 4.06–4.55 (br,
form attractive intercomponent p-stacking interactions, such 8 H, pyCH2NHCH2Ar; py = pyridyl), 6.29 (d, J = 8.6 Hz, 4 H, macro-
as those observed in the rotaxane between the benzyl groups cycle ArH), 6.49 (d, J = 8.6 Hz, 4 H, macrocycle ArH), 6.96 (d, J =
of the macrocycle and the extended p system of the thread in 8.6 Hz, 4 H, thread ArH), 7.16 (d, J = 8.6 Hz, 12 H, thread ArH), 7.27

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2004 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim www.angewandte.org Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2004, 43, 1218 –1218
 Angewandte
Chemie

(d, J = 8.6 Hz, 4 H, thread ArH), 7.37 (m, 14 H, thread ArH plus [6] D. Pomeranc, D. Jouvenot, J.-C. Chambron, J.-P. Collin, V. Heitz,
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.
Keywords: coordination modes · rotaxanes · self-assembly ·
template synthesis · thermodynamic control
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