Formation of Rack- and Grid-Type Metallosupramolecular Architectures and Generation of Molecular Motion by Reversible Uncoiling of Helical Ligand Strands
appropriate metal ions (Pb(II), Zn(II)) with helical ligand strands, obtained by hydrazone polycondensation, generates polymetallic supramolecular architectures of rack and grid types, by uncoiling of the ligand. The interconversion between the helical free ligand and the linearly extended ligand in the complexes produces reversible ion-induced, nanomechanical molecularmotions of large amplitude. It has been
condensation of hydrazine and carboxaldehyde derivatives of pym offers a very efficient approach to strands incorporating hyz instead of py units and constituted by sequences of alternating hyz and pym groups. A series of such strands of different lengths, up to ten hyz units, i.e., 1–7, were synthesized. Their spectral properties indicate that they fold indeed into helical shapes. Extensive characterization was