Threaded molecules such as catenanes and rotaxanes have garnered much attention in recent years, and concurrent with this has been the development of 3-D metallo-supramolecular assemblies that can be formed with a variety of prismatic and polyhedral structures. Threaded metallo-supramolecular assemblies have been largely restricted to catenanes of 2-D metalla-cycles and include examples of doubly braided [2]catenanes. To the best of our knowledge, the only example of an interlocking 3-D metallo-supramolecular assembly is the [2]catenane reported by Fujita and co-workers. In this assembly two asymmetric trigonal bipyramidal [M_3(L1)(L2)]~(6+) cages interlock and the formation of the catenane is driven by π-π stacking interactions between the two types of ligand.
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