Creating porosity in a trianglimine macrocycle by heterochiral pairing.

Macrocycles are usually non-porous or barely porous in the solid-state because of their small intrinsic cavity sizes and tendency to close-pack. Here, we use a heterochiral pairing strategy to introduce porosity in a trianglimine macrocycle, by co-crystallising two macrocycles with opposing chiralities. The stable racemic trianglimine crystal contains an interconnected pore network that has a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area of 355 m2 g-1.