MOLECULAR TECTONICS. THREE-DIMENSIONAL ORGANIC NETWORKS WITH INORGANIC PROPERTIES, AN UPDATE. Michel Simard and James D. Wuest, Département de chimie, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, Succ. centre-ville, Montréal, Québec, H3C 3J7

Noncovalent interactions that are selective, directional, and strongly attractive can induce the self-assembly of predictable supramolecular aggregates. Tectons (from Greek, tekton, builder) of selected local symmetry, length and flexibility are used as simple assembly blocs of Lego type for construction of specialized networks.

Several diamantoid networks were crystallized and studied by X-ray diffraction technique in order to verify the self-assembling properties of those novel tectons. These structures have in common the formation of large chambers whose size and shape follow directly from that of the tecton subunits. The network's large cavities so obtained use self-filling by mutual concatenation of similar networks to minimized the empty space in these structures. Besides the large chambers, large channels remain occupied by solvent molecules.

Novel types of networks, derived from the diamantoid type, were also characterized. Several new two- and three-dimensional networks were crystallized by using tectonic subunits of locally different primary symmetry. By modification of the flexibility and/or the terminal group of the arms, new network types were promoted.

This communication will present an overview of the subject as well as our most recent works in this area.

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