Photoresponsive Metal-Organic Cages

金属有机笼子作为分子容器受到了人们的关注，它将具有高亲和力的客体分子包裹在它们的空腔中。在生物系统中发现的信号通路的复杂性和功能性的启发下，人们对设计具有复杂的、非线性的对刺激的反应的笼状系统的兴趣越来越大。光作为一种刺激很有吸引力，因为触发反应不需要外部试剂，然而，光响应笼子的例子相对较少。在这个项目中，将首次在金属-有机笼子中利用光响应性主题，以开发新的光响应性笼子。最初的努力将集中在设计刺激响应型笼子，在这种笼子中，光照射后配体的几何结构变化会触发笼子内的客体释放或摄取。这将为该项目的最终目标--设计具有更复杂、非线性响应的光响应型笼子--奠定基础。通过这些研究，将更好地了解控制复杂、非线性反应的因素，从而设计更复杂的刺激响应性CAGE系统。

Metal-organic cages have gained attention as molecular containers, encapsulating guest molecules with high affinity within their cavities. Inspired by the complexity and functionality of signalling pathways found in biological systems, there is growing interest in the design of stimuli-responsive cage systems with complex, non-linear responses to stimuli. Light is attractive as a stimulus since external reagents are not required to trigger the response, however, there are relatively few examples of light-responsive cages. In this project a light-responsive motif will be exploited in metal-organic cages for the first time in order to develop new light-responsive cages. Initial efforts will focus on the design of stimuli-responsive cages where the geometry change of the ligands following irradiation with light triggers guest release or uptake within the cage. This will provide the groundwork for the final objective of this project, the design of light-responsive cages with more complex, non-linear responses. Through these studies, a greater understanding of the factors governing complex, non-linear responses will be gained allowing the design of more complex stimuli responsive cage systems.