英国剑桥大学Nitschke Jonathan R.团队报道了具有构象可切换面的伪立方金属有机笼，用于动态自适应客体封装。相关研究成果于2025年1月8日发表于国际一流学术期刊《自然—化学》。

能够容纳不同客体分子的宿主的创建，可以使这些宿主在化学纯化等应用中发挥有用的作用。金属-有机笼子是各种客体的理想宿主，但它们通常包含刚性结构单元，阻碍了对特定客体的动态适应。

该文中，研究人员报告了一种形态适应性强的伪立方笼，可以动态增加其腔体体积，以适应不同体型的客体。这个伪立方体包含一个四胺亚组分和2,6-萘臂，它们协同采用非平面构象，使笼面能够在内态和外态之间切换。

研究观察到多种客体分子在该笼的腔内结合，其大小范围为空笼腔体积的46%至154%。实验和计算证据表明，笼面从内到外翻转，在束缚较大的客体时扩大了空腔。

附：英文原文

Title: A pseudo-cubic metal–organic cage with conformationally switchable faces for dynamically adaptive guest encapsulation

Author: Xu, Houyang, Ronson, Tanya K., Heard, Andrew W., Teeuwen, Paula C. P., Schneider, Laura, Pracht, Philipp, Thoburn, John D., Wales, David J., Nitschke, Jonathan R.

Issue&Volume: 2025-01-08

Abstract: The creation of hosts capable of accommodating different guest molecules may enable these hosts to play useful roles in chemical purifications, among other applications. Metal–organic cages are excellent hosts for various guests, but they generally incorporate rigid structural units that hinder dynamic adaptation to specific guests. Here we report a conformationally adaptable pseudo-cubic cage that can dynamically increase its cavity volume to fit guests with differing sizes. This pseudo-cube incorporates a tetramine subcomponent with 2,6-naphthalene arms that cooperatively adopt a non-planar conformation, enabling the cage faces to switch between endo and exo states. A wide range of guest molecules were observed to bind within the cavity of this cage, spanning a range of sizes from 46% to 154% of the cavity volume of the empty cage. Experimental and computational evidence characterizes the flipping of cage faces from endo to exo, expanding the cavity upon binding of larger guests.

DOI: 10.1038/s41557-024-01708-5

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41557-024-01708-5