Hydrophobic-Driven, Metallomacrocyclic Assembly – Towards Quantitative Construction

A series of coordination-driven, heteroleptic self-assembled, bowtie-shaped bis-macrocycles were designed and constructed by combining tetrakis(terpyridinyl)thianthrene and bis-terpyridine, 60 degrees-directed, Ru2+ dimers. The resulting complexes were characterized by NMR spectroscopy and ESI-MS coupled with travelling wave ion mobility spectrometry ( ESI-TWIM-MS) experiments. The desired bis-macrocycles were obtained in quantitative yields through the use of long alkyl-chain substituents, in contrast to the lower yields obtained for smaller alkyl moieties.