Chiral metal–organic cages decorated with binaphthalene moieties

Abstract

The construction of chiral nanoobjects with atomically precise nanostructures has attracted much more attention in the past decades. However, this field is still in its early stages. We designed and synthesized a series of chiral ligands containing the binaphthalene moiety and isophthalate module. Then, four chiral metal–organic cages (MOCs) were obtained through the coordination between isophthalate modules and copper ions. These chiral MOCs exhibit discrete, uniform and stable structures, good solubility and photoluminescence behaviors.