Scientists shed light on construction of dynamic supramolecular snub cubes

TIANJIN -- Scientists have achieved a major breakthrough in the construction of dynamic supramolecular snub cubes, according to Tianjin University, a participant of the international research.

Their study tackled a long-standing challenge in supramolecular chemistry, which was the stereospecific assembly of artificial polyhedra with mechanical properties and guest-binding attributes, akin to biological encapsulants such as viral capsids and ferritin.

The snub cube, one of 13 Archimedean solids described by ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes, has long fascinated scientists due to its intrinsic topological chirality and structural complexity. However, achieving the stereospecific assembly of such a polyhedron has been a formidable challenge until now.

The research team leveraged hierarchical chirality transfer protocol to accomplish the stereospecific assembly of enantiomeric supramolecular snub cubes. These snub cubes exhibit remarkable complexity and precision in structure, featuring 38 faces and having an external diameter of 5.1 nanometers. In addition, the cube has a spherical void with a diameter of 2.3 nanometers.

The cubes exhibit reversible photochromic behavior, including changing their color under different wavelengths of light, and manageable mechanical properties, such as photocontrollable elasticity and hardness.

These observations reveal that the snub cubes are not only a significant feat of structural design but also promising candidates for developing smart materials and advanced optoelectronic devices.

The chiral porous superstructure of snub cubes could have applications in fields ranging from chiral separation to drug delivery.

Hu Wenping, who led the Tianjin University's research team, said this type of fundamental research has the potential to drive innovation across a range of disciplines -- from new materials to biomedicine and chemical engineering.

The findings have been recently published in the academic journal Nature.