Ni(II)-Mediated self-assembly of artificial β-dipeptides forming a macrocyclic tetranuclear complex with interior spaces for in-line molecular arrangement

Metal-mediated self-assembly of bioinspired molecular building blocks shows promise as an excellent strategy to provide well-defined metal arrays and nanoscopic metallo-architectures in a programmable way. Herein, we report Ni(II)-mediated self-assembly of artificial beta-dipeptides (1) which were prepared from a newly designed P-amino acid bearing a propanediamine ligand as the side chain. The P-dipeptide (1) has thus two sets of ligands, that is, each building block serves as a tridentate ligand with a bidentate propanediamine unit and an amide carbonyl group. Both C- and N-terminal tridentate ligands in 1 bind to two Ni(II) ions independently, and consequently, four beta-dipeptides are circularly arranged in a head-to-tail fashion to form a macrocyclic tetranuclear Ni(II) complex, Ni(4)1(4)(Clo(4))(8)(H2O)(10). The cyclic structure was determined by X-ray analysis and ESI-TOF mass spectrometry. The resulting unique twisted-boat structure allows the formation of isolated spaces for in-line hydrogen-bonded arrangement of water and anion molecules within a hole and two grooves rich in hydrogen bonding groups.