The New Di-Gold Metallotweezer Based on an Alkynylpyridine System

Abstract

We developed a simple method to prepare one gold-based metallotweezer with two planar Au-pyrene-NHC arms bound by a 2,6-bis(3-ethynyl-5-tert-butylphenyl)pyridine unit. This metallotweezer is able to bind a series of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons through the π-stacking interactions between the polyaromatic guests and the pyrene moieties of the NHC ligands. The metallotweezer was also used as a host for the encapsulation of planar metal complexes, such as the Au(III) complex [Au(C^N^C)(C≡CC6H4-OCH3-p)], for which there is a large binding constant of 946 M−1.

Keywords

• metallotweezer
• gold(I)
• host-guest chemistry
• polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)