A covalent deprotection strategy for assembling supramolecular coordination polymers from metal-organic cages

A Cu4L4 metal-organic cage (MOC) composed of amine-protected ligands forms supramolecular coordination polymers (SCPs) upon covalent post-assembly deprotection. The amorphous SCPs form by virtue of aniline-copper coordination and possess a tunable porosity based on the rate of deprotection