Photoresponsive Metal-Organic Cages

金属-有机笼作为分子容器，以高亲和力将客体分子封装在其空腔内，已经引起了人们的关注。受生物系统中信号通路的复杂性和功能性的启发，人们对设计具有复杂的非线性刺激响应的刺激响应笼系统越来越感兴趣。光作为刺激是有吸引力的，因为不需要外部试剂来触发反应，然而，光响应笼的例子相对较少。在这个项目中，光响应基序将首次在金属有机笼中被利用，以开发新的光响应笼。最初的努力将集中在刺激响应笼的设计，其中配体的几何形状变化后，用光照射触发客人释放或摄取的笼内。这将为本项目的最终目标提供基础，即设计具有更复杂的非线性响应的光响应笼子。通过这些研究，将获得对复杂的非线性响应的控制因素的更好的理解，从而允许设计更复杂的刺激响应笼系统。

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.