Functional Molecular Cages Through Subcomponent Self–Assembly

Abstract

This article describes the recent research on molecular cages achieved in Nitschkeʼs group. Subcomponent self-assembly allows the construction of molecular cages from simple building blocks via the formation of coordination bonds and dynamic covalent bonds around metal templates. By utilizing this method, a variety of functional molecular cages have been constructed. In this article, we focused on two topics. In the first topic, molecular cages were utilized for the molecular recognition and the catalytic reaction. In the second topic, we describe the interesting nature of molecular cages that originates from reversible substitution of subcomponents of molecular cages.