writer：Yunan Qin, Jingpeng Xiong, Quan Li, Yuexing Zhang, Ming-Hua Zeng
keywords：adaptivity, guest encapsulation, molecular motor, metal-organic cage, photoresponsiveness
source：期刊
specific source：Chem. Euro. J., DOI: 10.1002/chem.202201821
Issue time：2022年

We present the construction of a M2L4 type metal-organic nanocage featuring four endohedral Feringa’s motor motifs and its adaptive encapsulation towards C60 guest molecule. The structure of the cage, though complicated on the 1H NMR spectrum due to the adoption of mixed ligands, was unambiguously characterized with a combination of ESI-MS, 2D DOSY, 13C NMR and particularly the SAXS technique. The molecular motor within the cage demonstrated similar photophysical properties to the uncoordinated one, indicating the motor’s function was not compromised when it was anchored in such a confined nanospace. Furthermore, the nanocage showed good guest encapsulation ability towards C60, and a guest induced-fit behavior of the cage was revealed based on the extensive SAXS analysis and molecular dynamics simulation. The adaptive motorized nanocage reported here represents one of the very few examples of integrating individual motors into a discrete nanoconfined system and offers prospects to achieve its non-equilibrium functions.