Design and synthesis of 60° dendritic donor ligands and their coordination-driven self-assembly into supramolecular rhomboidal metallodendrimers

The design and self-assembly of novel rhomboidal metallodendrimers via coordination-driven self-assembly is described. By employing newly designed 60° ditopic donor linkers substituted with Fréchet-type dendrons and appropriate 120° rigid di-Pt(II) acceptor subunits, a variety of [G-1] - [G-3] rhomboidal metallodendrimers with well-defined shape and size were prepared under mild conditions in high yields. The supramolecular metallodendrimers were characterized with multinuclear NMR ( ¹H and ³¹P), mass spectrometry (CSI-TOF-MS), and elemental analysis. Isotopically resolved mass spectrometry data support the existence of the metallodendrimers with rhomboidal cavities, and NMR data were consistent with the formation of all ensembles. The shape and size of all rhomboidal metallodendrimers were investigated with the PM6 semiempirical molecular orbital method.