title: Tetra-porphyrin molecular tweezers: two binding sites linked via a polycyclic scaffold and rotating phenyl diimide core.
abstract: The synthesis of a tetra-porphyrin molecular tweezer with two binding sites is described. The bis-porphyrin binding sites are aligned by a polycyclic scaffold and linked via a freely rotating phenyl diimide core. Synthesis was achieved using a divergent approach employing a novel coupling method for linking two polycyclic units to construct the core, with a copper(ii)-mediated phenyl boronic acid coupling found to extend to our polycyclic imide derivative. We expect this chemistry to be a powerful tool in accessing functional polycyclic supramolecular architectures in applications where north/south reactivity and/or directional interactions between modules are important. Porphyrin receptor functionalisation was undertaken last, by a four-fold ACE coupling reaction on the tetra-epoxide derivative of the core.
authors.affiliation: Flinders Centre for NanoScale Science and Technology, School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Flinders University, Bedford Park, Adelaide, Australia. martin.johnston@flinders.edu.au.
authors.forename: R B
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3069-5352
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.affiliation: Flinders Centre for NanoScale Science and Technology, School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Flinders University, Bedford Park, Adelaide, Australia. martin.johnston@flinders.edu.au.
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Norman
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: White
authors.affiliation: Flinders Centre for NanoScale Science and Technology, School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Flinders University, Bedford Park, Adelaide, Australia. martin.johnston@flinders.edu.au.
authors.forename: M V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Perkins
authors.affiliation: Flinders Centre for NanoScale Science and Technology, School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Flinders University, Bedford Park, Adelaide, Australia. martin.johnston@flinders.edu.au.
authors.forename: M R
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4341-4396
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Johnston