Macrocyclic Coordination Chemistry

(Chemscape Chime plugin required to view the structures in 3D).

In recent years we have been developing new synthetic routes toward macrocyclic ligands and their complexes. Much of our efforts have been focussed on metal directed reactions. A recent example of this type of chemistry is given below (P.V. Bernhardt and P.C. Sharpe Inorganic Chemistry, 1998, 37, 1629, and references therein). (view crystal structure)
 

Dinuclear complexes such as that shown below have been made using a similar strategy. The nitroacetate dianion condenses with formaldehyde to produce the 1,3,5-trinitropentane bridge in situ (P.V. Bernhardt and L.A. Jones Chemical Communications, 1997, 655). (view crystal structure)

A trinuclear complex has also been isolated using the trifunctional heterocycle melamine (P.V. Bernhardt and E.J. Hayes J. Chem. Soc., Dalton Trans., 1998, 3539). (view crystal structure)