Issue 9, 2017

Crystallography of encapsulated molecules

Abstract

The crystallography of supramolecular host–guest complexes is reviewed and discussed as a part of small molecule crystallography. In these complexes, the host binds the guests through weak supramolecular interactions, such as hydrogen and halogen bonding, cation–π, anion–π, C–H–π, π–π, C–H–anion interactions and the hydrophobic effect. As the guest often shows severe disorder, large thermal motion and low occupancies, the reliable crystallographic determination of the guest can be very demanding. The analysis of host–guest interactions using tools such as Hirshfeld and cavity volume surface analysis will help to look closely at the most important host–guest interactions. The jewel in the crown of utilizing host–guest interactions in the solid-state is the recently developed Crystalline Sponge Method (CSM) by Makoto Fujita. This method, when successful, gives an accurate and unambiguous 3-D structure of the structurally unknown guest molecule from only micro- or nanogram amounts of the guest molecule. In the case of an optically pure enantiomer, its absolute configuration can be determined.

Graphical abstract: Crystallography of encapsulated molecules

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
03 Feb 2017
First published
05 Eph 2017

Chem. Soc. Rev., 2017,46, 2638-2648

Crystallography of encapsulated molecules

K. Rissanen, Chem. Soc. Rev., 2017, 46, 2638 DOI: 10.1039/C7CS00090A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements