Download PDF
Synfacts 2007(12): 1257-1257  
DOI: 10.1055/s-2007-991358
Synthesis of Materials and Unnatural Products
© Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York

A Self-Threading Needle

Contributor(s): Timothy M. Swager, Brett VanVeller
J. D. Crowley, K. D. Hänni, A.-L. Lee, D. A. Leigh*
University of Edinburgh, UK
Further Information

Publication History

Publication Date:
22 November 2007 (online)

    Permissions and Reprints

Significance

The authors use Pd(II)-catalyzed oxidative Heck cross-coupling for the synthesis of mechanically linked architectures such as [2]rotaxanes. Most notably, their strategy utilizes an ‘active-template’ synthesis whereby the ligand ­itself serves as the macrocycle. The use of the Heck reaction provides for mild generation and a large scope of potential threading molecules. Further, the active-template method demonstrated is reportedly traceless in free, non-interlocking threads.