Rotaxanes are a class of supramolecular entities composed of mechanically interlocked structures.

They consist of macrocyclic rings trapped onto linear units by bulky substituents. They are normally formed by the assembly of multiple components through non-covalent interactions.

In this paper, Pablo Ballester and his team report, for the first time, the construction of a four component pseudorotaxane-like complex. They use polyatomic anions to drive the self-assembly of the complex. Their approach exploits the unique ion-pair recognition properties of a self-assembled ditopic intervowen receptor.

This new structure could find applications in molecular machinery, switches and shuttles ranging from biology to nanoelectronics.

The Editors of JACS recommend this paper for the strength of its reviews, the novelty of the work and the anticipated impact of the research and they highlighted it in JACS Spotlights.

J. Am. Chem. Soc., DOI: 10.1021/ja301900s