Porous organic ‘cage of cages’ crystalline structure predicted by computational modelling

Organic cages have been used as precursors to synthesise higher order porous structures, adding to their functionality while the ability to solution process them is retained.

The team from the UK and China used ether-bridged cage molecules as a building block – its chlorine atoms are essential for forming ether bridges – with fluorine-enriched tetrafluorohydroquinone (TFHQ) as the linear bridge. The fluorine atoms offer structural integrity by limiting bond rotation and can improve the solubility of the resulting cage–cage molecules.