Lithium cations in a self-assembled electrostatic nanocapsule.

Cascade self-assembly of small components, without the employment of preformed hosts, yielded a {Ni12Li2} nanometric capsule with multiple endo- and exo-guests (water molecules, Li+, and Et3NH+ cations) linked to selective hydrophilic and hydrophobic binding sites of NiII hexanuclear metallamacrocycles. The synthesis was achieved by using (Bu4N)N3 as a starting reagent instead of the conventional sodium azide to selectively introduce the Li+ cations.