A self-assembled tetrathiafulvalene box

A M8L2 metalla-cage constructed through coordination-driven self-assembly from a quinonato bis-ruthenium complex and an electron-rich tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) tetrapyridyl ligand is depicted. In this molecular box, both TTF units are highly bent and are separated by a distance as short as 3.48 A in the solid state. This system offers a unique opportunity to study the electronic interactions occurring between two TTF units facing each other in a conformationally rigid environment.