A new class of customisable stable boronic ester assemblies

Abstract

An efficient, customisable approach for the assembly of covalent macrocycles and cages has been developed using the reaction of fused polynorbornane based bis-diols and commercially available boronic acids. The ability to customise the requisite bis-diol to various lengths and dihedral angles (here both 90° and 180°) and then combine with di or triboronic acids allows access to range of architectures. The resultant constructs were resistant to hydrolysis including 24-hour exposure to dilute solutions of either acetic or trifluoroacetic acid.