The story of the little blue box: a tribute to Siegfried Hünig

XY Chen, H Chen… - Angewandte Chemie …, 2023 - Wiley Online Library
The tetracationic cyclophane, cyclobis (paraquat‐p‐phenylene), also known as the little blue
box, constitutes a modular receptor that has facilitated the discovery of many host–guest …

Radical-pairing-induced molecular assembly and motion

K Cai, L Zhang, RD Astumian, JF Stoddart - Nature Reviews Chemistry, 2021 - nature.com
Radical-pairing interactions between conjugated organic π-radicals are relative newcomers
to the inventory of molecular recognition motifs explored in supramolecular chemistry. The …

Electron-catalysed molecular recognition

Y Jiao, Y Qiu, L Zhang, WG Liu, H Mao, H Chen… - Nature, 2022 - nature.com
Molecular recognition,,–and supramolecular assembly,,–cover a broad spectrum,–of non-
covalently orchestrated phenomena between molecules. Catalysis of such processes …

Water-soluble redox-active cage hosting polyoxometalates for selective desulfurization catalysis

LX Cai, SC Li, DN Yan, LP Zhou, F Guo… - Journal of the American …, 2018 - ACS Publications
Transformations within container-molecules provide a good alternative between traditional
homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis, as the containers themselves can be regarded …

Introducing stable radicals into molecular machines

Y Wang, M Frasconi, JF Stoddart - ACS Central Science, 2017 - ACS Publications
Ever since their discovery, stable organic radicals have received considerable attention from
chemists because of their unique optical, electronic, and magnetic properties. Currently, one …

A self‐assembled homochiral radical cage with paramagnetic behaviors

T Jiao, H Qu, L Tong, X Cao, H Li - … Chemie International Edition, 2021 - Wiley Online Library
Condensation of an inherently C3‐symmetric polychlorotriphenylmethyl (PTM) radical
trisaldehyde with tris (2‐aminoethyl) amine (TREN) yields a [4+ 4] tetrahedral radical cage …

Molecular Russian dolls

K Cai, MC Lipke, Z Liu, J Nelson, T Cheng, Y Shi… - Nature …, 2018 - nature.com
The host-guest recognition between two macrocycles to form hierarchical non-intertwined
ring-in-ring assemblies remains an interesting and challenging target in noncovalent …

Mechanical bond-assisted full-spectrum investigation of radical interactions

Y Jiao, H Mao, Y Qiu, G Wu, H Chen… - Journal of the …, 2022 - ACS Publications
Molecular recognition, based on noncovalent bonding interactions, plays a central role in
directing supramolecular phenomena in both chemical and biological environments. The …

Densely charged dodecacationic [3]-and tetracosacationic radial [5] catenanes

MT Nguyen, DP Ferris, C Pezzato, Y Wang, JF Stoddart - Chem, 2018 - cell.com
Here, we report the efficient syntheses of a dodecacationic [3] catenane, which consists of
three mechanically interlocked 4+ charged rings despite their mutual Coulombic repulsion …

Flexible imidazolium macrocycles: building blocks for anion-induced self-assembly

YD Yang, JL Sessler, HY Gong - Chemical Communications, 2017 - pubs.rsc.org
This feature article summarises recent contributions of the authors in the area of anion-
induced supramolecular self-assembly. It is based on the chemistry of a set of tetracationic …