Molecular Trefoil Knot from a Trimeric Circular Helicate.
Liang ZhangDavid P AugustJiankang ZhongGeorge F S WhiteheadIñigo J Vitorica-YrezabalDavid A LeighPublished in: Journal of the American Chemical Society (2018)
We report the two-step synthesis of a molecular trefoil knot in 90% overall yield through the self-assembly of a 12-component trimeric circular zinc helicate followed by ring closing metathesis of six pendant alkene chains. Both the trimeric circular helicate intermediate and the resulting trefoil knot were characterized by NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and X-ray crystallography.