Volume 18, Issue 31 p. 9571-9579
Full Paper

A Series of Trifacial Pd6 Molecular Barrels with Porphyrin Walls

Arun Kumar Bar

Arun Kumar Bar

Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Indian Institution of Science, Bangalore 560 012 (India)

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Sudip Mohapatra

Sudip Mohapatra

Chemistry and Physics of Materials Unit, Jawaharlal Nehru Center for Advanced Scientific, Research, Jakkur, Bangalore-560064 (India)

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Prof. Ennio Zangrando

Prof. Ennio Zangrando

University of Trieste, Dipartimento di Scienze, 34127 Trieste (Italy)

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Prof. Partha Sarathi Mukherjee

Corresponding Author

Prof. Partha Sarathi Mukherjee

Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Indian Institution of Science, Bangalore 560 012 (India)

Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Indian Institution of Science, Bangalore 560 012 (India)Search for more papers by this author
First published: 28 June 2012
Citations: 49

Graphical Abstract

Like shooting fish in a barrel: Three nanoscopic trifacial Pd6 molecular barrels with porphyrin walls were characterized by spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. These water-soluble barrels bound ZnII ions in the N4 pockets of the porphyrin walls.

Abstract

Three new nanoscopic trigonal prisms, [(tmen)6Pd6(H2L)3](NO3)12 (1), [(Meen)6Pd6(H2L)3](NO3)12 (2), and [(2,2′-bipy)6Pd6(H2L)3](NO3)12 (3), have been synthesized in excellent yields through single-step metal–ligand-coordination-driven self-assembly using 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(3-pyridyl)porphyrin (H2L) as a donor and cis-blocked PdII 90° acceptors. These complexes were fully characterized by spectroscopic studies and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. All of these barrels quantitatively bind ZnII ions in the N4 pockets of the porphyrin walls at room temperature. Their corresponding zinc-embedded complexes, [(tmen)6Pd6(ZnL)3](NO3)12 (1 a), [(Meen)6Pd6(ZnL)3](NO3)12 (2 a), and [(2,2′-bipy)6Pd6(ZnL)3](NO3)12 (3 a), were synthesized under ambient conditions by the post-synthetic binding of ZnII ions into the H2N4 pockets of the porphyrin walls of these complexes. These zinc-embedded complexes were characterized by electronic absorption, fluorescence emission, 1H NMR spectroscopy, as well as elemental analysis. Complexes 13 exhibited considerable microporosity in their solid state. Complex 1 was an efficient adsorbent for nitrogen gas and EtOH, MeOH, and water vapors.