Sol-gel interconvertible 62-component dodecahedra assembled via amide-π-assisted anion-coordination nanoarchitectonics.

Abstract

Viruses achieve remarkable complexity through the self-assembly of protein subunits, yet mimicking such processes synthetically has remained a grand challenge. While a 144-component metal-organic cage has been obtained, the maximum component count for known supramolecular assemblies of weak noncovalent forces is only 20. Here, we report a 62-component supramolecular cage assembled via a bioinspired strategy. By combining anion coordination with amide-π interactions, we construct a 62-component discrete dodecahedral cage structurally analogous to the dengue virus. This synthetic architecture, comprising three distinct molecular species held together via 60 H-bonds and 30 sets of amide-π interactions, demonstrates excellent stability in solution and exhibits multiple solid structural polymorphs. A reversible sol-gel transition is achieved by a mixture of the dodecahedra in acetylacetone (acac), which is driven by the host-guest-mediated higher-order assembly. These findings establish a previously unidentified paradigm for constructing multicomponent supramolecular cages, opening avenues for developing bioinspired molecular nanocontainers and providing a foundation for diverse nanotechnological applications.