Jinhua Wang

• Weizmann Institute of Science

Macrocycles and cages are very attractive for the development of functional materials due to their unique inner cavities. Building blocks with interesting functions and synthetic conveniences are especially attractive. Tetraphenylethylene (TPE) is such an entity with C2 symmetry and tetrakis‐functional groups easily modifiable. As a typical aggrega...

The architecture of self-assembled host molecules can profoundly affect the properties of the encapsulated guests. For example, a rigid cage with small windows can efficiently protect its contents from the environment; in contrast, tube-shaped, flexible hosts with large openings and an easily accessible cavity are ideally suited for catalysis. Here...

Integrating light-sensitive molecules within nanoparticle (NP) assemblies is an attractive approach to fabricate new photoresponsive nanomaterials. Here, we describe the concept of photocleavable anionic glue (PAG): small trianions capable of mediating interactions between (and inducing the aggregation of) cationic NPs by means of electrostatic int...

Molecular confinement effects can profoundly alter the physicochemical properties of the confined species. A plethora of organic molecules were encapsulated within the cavities of supramolecular hosts, and the impact of the cavity size and polarity was widely investigated. However, the extent to which the properties of the confined guests can be af...

Folded molecules provide complex interaction interfaces amenable to sophisticated self‐assembly motifs. Because of their high conformational stability, aromatic foldamers constitute suitable candidates for the rational elaboration of self‐assembled architectures. Several multiturn helical aromatic oligoamides have been synthesized that possess arra...

Aromatic foldamers are promising for applications such as molecular recognition and molecular machinery. For many of these, defect free, 2D-crystaline monolayers are needed. To this end, submonolayers were prepared in ultra-high vacuum (UHV) on Ag(111) via electrospray controlled ion beam deposition (ES-CIBD). On the surface, the unfolded state is...

The very stable helices of 8‐amino‐2‐quinolinecarboxylic acid oligoamides are shown to uptake CuII ions in their cavity through deprotonation of their amide functions with minimal alteration of their shape, unlike most metallo‐organic structures which generally differ from their organic precursors. The outcome is the formation of intramolecular lin...

String-like stacks of metal ions, like tennis balls in their box, is a sought-after architecture because of the properties that may result from short distances between multiple metal centers. As Ivan Huc et al. demonstrate in their Communication (DOI: 10.1002/anie.202104734) how helical aromatic foldamers enable the production of such structures an...

Streifen‐artige Stapel von Metallionen, wie Tennisbälle in ihrer Box, sind eine interessante Architektur, da sich aus kurzen Abständen zwischen mehreren Metallzentren ungewöhnliche Eigenschaften ergeben können. Wie Ivan Huc et al. in ihrer Zuschrift (DOI: 10.1002/ange.202104734) zeigen, ermöglichen helikale aromatische Foldamere die Herstellung sol...

The very stable helices of 8‐amino‐2‐quinolinecarboxylic acid oligoamides are shown to uptake Cu(II) ions in their cavity through deprotonation of their amide functions with minimal alteration of their shape, unlike most metallo‐organic structures which generally much differ from their organic precursors. The outcome is the formation of intramolecu...

DNA nanotechnology offers a versatile toolbox for precise spatial and temporal manipulation of matter on the nanoscale. However, rendering DNA‐based systems responsive to light has remained challenging. Herein, we describe the remote manipulation of native (non‐photoresponsive) chiral plasmonic molecules (CPMs) using light. Our strategy is based on...

The spatial configuration and optical properties of non‐photoresponsive DNA‐origami‐based plasmonic assemblies can be controlled with light using a photoresponsive medium. Upon exposure to visible light, the medium's pH decreases, inducing the formation of DNA triplex links in the plasmonic assemblies, leading to their spatial reconfiguration, whic...

Quinoline based aromatic amide foldamers are known to adopt stable folded conformations. We have developed a synthetic approach to produce similar oligomers where all amide bonds, or part of them, have been replaced by an isosteric vinylene group. The results of solution and solid state structural studies show that oligomers exclusively containing...

A tetraphenylethylene (TPE) derivative bearing two dimethylformamidine units was synthesized. The dihydrogen chloride salt of this TPE derivative was soluble in water and showed almost no emission. By addition of phosphate anions, the dihydrogen chloride salt could be transformed into the monohydrogen chloride salt, which was barely soluble and emi...

A new [3 + 3] trimeric macrocycle, based on tetraphenylethylene having an aggregation-induced emission effect, could form a interdigitation molecular cage with a big void by host–guest interactions. The cage could accommodate two TNT molecules and detect TNT at the 1.7 fg level per mL of air. Moreover, the cage could give permanent pores that had a...

Novel tetraphenylethylene (TPE) foldamers with double hairpin-turn linkers and aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effect were synthesized for the first time. Unprecedentedly, crystal structure of foldamer-TNT complex was obtained, enabling the direct observation of the interactions of TNT molecules with chromophore ones that never did before. Inste...

A neutral chiral receptor based on TPE cyclohexylbisurea was synthesized and could discriminate the enantiomers of many different kinds of chiral reagents including chiral acidic compounds, basic ones, amino acids and even neutral alcohols. The 1H NMR spectra disclosed that the supra ability of chiral recognition should be ascribed to the multiple...

A new imidazolium macrocycle based on tetraphenylethylene (TPE) was synthesized. This positive macrocycle showed a typical aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effect but could not be induced fluorescence emission by common inorganic anions in aqueous solution, including pyrophosphate bearing four negative charges. However, in the presence of half eq...

Proximally dietherified calix[4]arene at lower rim was selectively nitrated to give mononitrocalix[4]arene, dinitrocalix[4] arene, and trinitrocalix[4]arene, respectively, under different reaction conditions. These three nitrocalix[4]arenes could be purified in good yield just by recrystallization, which provided a concise approach to inherently ch...

The identification of explosives is critical for analyzing the background of terrorism activities and the origin of pollution aroused by the explosives, but it is a challenge to discriminate the explosives with a very similar structure. Herein we report a series of TPE-based macrocycles with an AIE effect for the 0.2-4 ppb level detection of TNT am...

Tetraphenylethylene pillar[6]arenes with an AIE effect were synthesized for the first time. The fluorescence of the pillar[6]arenes could be quenched much more and much faster by TNT than by other nitroaromatics including 2,4,6-trinitrophenol, which could be used to detect TNT in air.

Novel amphiphilic calix[4]arenes bearing four carboxylic groups at the upper rim and four alkyl chains at the lower rim were synthesized. It was found for the first time that a hydrogel could form by leaving the suspension of the amphiphilic calix[4]arene in aqueous media to stand at room temperature for a period of time. Unlike most supramolecular...

A novel imidazolium macrocycle based on bridged tetraphenylethylene (TPE) was synthesized. Due to bearing the bridged TPE units, this macrocycle not only displayed an aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effect but also had a monomer emission, which was very rare in AIE compounds. With aggregation of the macrocycle, the aggregate emission increased w...

It was found for the first time that neutral amphiphilc tetraphenylethylene (TPE) derivatives showed an enhanced monomer emission and a decreased aggregate emission when they were included in the cavity of γ-cyclodextrin. This result provided a new insight into the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effect.