Self-Assembly of Metallacages into Multidimensional Suprastructures with Tunable Emissions

Cubic metallacages were arranged into multidimensional (one-, two-, and three-dimensional) suprastructures via multistep assembly. Four new shape-controllable, hybrid metallacages with modified substituents and tunable electronic properties were prepared using dicarboxylate ligands with various substituents (sodium sulfonate, nitro, methoxyl, and amine), tetra-(4-pyridylphenyl) ethylene, and cis-(PEt3)2Pt(OTf)2. The as-prepared metallacages were used as building blocks for further assembly. Diverse suprastructures with tunable emissions (λmax from 451 to 519 nm) and various substituents (−SO3Na, −NO2, −OCH3, and −NH2) were prepared depending on the substituents and solvents used.