Phys.org  April 29, 2024 Researchers in the UK have developed a two-step, hierarchical synthesis that assembled a trigonal prismatic organic cage into a more symmetric, higher-order tetrahedral cage. Both the preformed [2+3] trigonal prismatic cage building blocks and the resultant tetrahedral [4[2+3]+6]cage molecule were constructed using ether bridges. This strategy afforded the tetrahedral cage molecule excellent hydrolytic stability that was not a feature of more common dynamic cage linkers. Despite its relatively high molar mass, tetrahedral cage exhibited good solubility and crystallized into a porous superstructure. By contrast, the [2+3] building block was not porous. The tetrahedral cage molecule showed […]