Chemical physics

Materials science

Receptor

Kinetic energy

Biochemistry

Molecule

Classical mechanics

Stereochemistry

Molecular recognition

Cage

Physics

Ligand (biochemistry)

Nanotechnology

Organic chemistry

Molecular motor

Mathematics

Computational chemistry

Combinatorics

Crystallography

Chemistry

Topology (electrical circuits)

Journal of the American Chemical Society

We synthesized a double-walled knotted cage from a flexible tripodal ligand. The characteristic double-walled structure provided a unique adaptive behavior of the cavity upon inclusion of organic molecules, which was evidenced by NMR and X-ray measurements. The semiflexible host framework, restricted by the knotted topology, enabled kinetic molecular recognition revealing the sequential binding of two different guests from their mixture.

A Double-Walled Knotted Cage for Guest-Adaptive Molecular Recognition