Self-assembling supermolecules and supramolecular arrays based on metal coordination

A number of really clever approaches to self-assembling supermolecules and supramolecular arrays incorporating metal centers coordinated by organic ligands have been developed during the past two years. These novel procedures rely on supramolecular assistance provided by the stereoelectronic information imprinted in the building blocks - in other words metal centers and ligands. This assistance guides the self-assembly of the building blocks into the final supramolecular product(s) in a manner reminiscent of that observed in numerous biological systems. Thus, complex and well-defined supermolecules and supramolecular arrays can now be synthesized efficiently in only one step without having to rely on tedious protection/deprotection protocols and on often low-yielding multistep synthetic routes.