Air- and Light-Stable P4and As4within an Anion-Coordination-Based Tetrahedral Cage.
In contrast to the stable dinitrogen molecule, white phosphorus (P4) and yellow arsenic (As4) are very reactive allotropic modifications of these two heavier pnictogen elements, which has greatly hampered the study of their properties and applications. Thus, the safe storage and transport of them is imperative. Supramolecular caged structures are one of the most efficient approaches for the encapsulation and stabilization of reactive species; however, their use in the P4and As4chemistry is very rare. In the current work, we demonstrate a new design strategy for constructing finite cages and including guests based on anion coordination chemistry. The phosphate-coordination-based tetrahedral cages can readily accommodate the tetrahedral guests P4and As4, which is facilitated by the shape and size complementarity as well as favorable σ-π and lone-pair-π interactions. Moreover, the latter case represents the first example of As4inclusion in a well-defined tetrahedral cage.
Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule Chemistry of the Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University , Xi'an 710069, China.
Dong
0000-0002-1971-7349
D
Yang
Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule Chemistry of the Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University , Xi'an 710069, China.
Jie
J
Zhao
Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule Chemistry of the Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University , Xi'an 710069, China.
Le
L
Yu
School of Materials and Textile Engineering, Jiaxing University , Jiaxing 314001, China.
Xiangsong
X
Lin
Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule Chemistry of the Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University , Xi'an 710069, China.
Wenyao
W
Zhang
Analysis and Testing Center, Beijing Institute of Technology , Beijing 102488, China.
Hongwei
H
Ma
Department of Chemistry-BMC, Uppsala University , Box 576, Uppsala SE-751 23, Sweden.
Adolf
0000-0002-9092-261X
A
Gogoll
Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule Chemistry of the Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University , Xi'an 710069, China.
Zhibin
Z
Zhang
Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule Chemistry of the Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University , Xi'an 710069, China.
Yaoyu
0000-0002-0800-7093
Y
Wang
Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule Chemistry of the Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University , Xi'an 710069, China.
Xiao-Juan
XJ
Yang
Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule Chemistry of the Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University , Xi'an 710069, China.
Biao
B
Wu