Photoinduced interruption of interannular cooperativity for delivery of cationic guests in water

Abstract

The synergy among twelve carboxylates from two hexavalent baskets 1⁶⁻ assisted the encapsulation of one divalent diammonium guest 3²⁺–6²⁺ and the formation of ternary [3–6⊂1₂]¹⁰⁻. The reduction of basket's multivalency, by photoinduced α-decarboxylation of 1⁶⁻ to give 2³⁻, intercepted the interannular cooperativity operating in the stabilization of capsulpex [3–6⊂1₂]¹⁰⁻ to dramatically diminish the binding affinity towards diammonium guests. As a result, the cationic guests were released into bulk water with 2³⁻ assembling into nanoparticles. With numerous drugs carrying positive sites, the finding reported here could now be examined for their light-promoted spatiotemporal delivery.