Molecular Macrocycles, Catenanes and Knots

 

Molecular Macrocycles, Catenanes and Knots

 

Date: 14^th July, 2026 (Tuesday)

Time: 5:30 - 6:30 pm (HKT)

 

Venue: Lecture Theatre P3, Chong Yuet Ming Physics Building

 

 

Department of Chemistry

Fudan University

 

Dr. Guo-Xin Jin received his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from Nanjing University in1987. He was a postdoctoral fellow from 1988-1990 as Humboldt Fellow and a research staff member from1990-1995 at Organometallic Chemistry Institute of Bayreuth University, Germany. He joined Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, CAS as a Professor and head of a Laboratory in 1996. He moved to Chemistry Department, Fudan University in 2001 as Chair Professor (CheungKong Scholarship). His current research interests include various aspects of organometallic chemistry, self-assembly of metallacycles and metallacages and carborane chemistry. He has published more than 4330 research papers and 30 review papers and books, and has been involved in 45 patents. He has delivered more than 40 plenary and keynote lectures in international conferences. He was as an Associate Editor of Dalton Transactions from 2005 to 2019 and now is an Editorial Board Members of “Coordination Chemistry Reviews”, “Journal of Organometallic Chemistry” and “Molecules”. He obtained Humboldt Research Award in 2016. He was selected as a Foreign Members of Russian Academy of Natural Sciences in 2014 and European Academy of Sciences in 2019.

The construction of new inorganic and organometallic macrocycles and cages with interesting structural features and technologically useful functions have been topics of intense study with considerable potential.1 One of the chief motivating factors to growth in this field is the development of new, functional and tunable donor building blocks that can bridge transition metals. Ideal building blocks should be easily accessible, exhibit high affinities toward transition metals, and possess facial coordination sites can undergo exchange reactions with various ligands. Half-sandwich transition metal complexes (Cp*M, Cp* = h⁵-C₅Me₅) are useful model compounds in which one hemisphere of the coordination shell is blocked by the voluminous Cp* rings. In the protected space below the Cp* ligands, various bidentate or tridentate ligands can be accommodated.

Motivated by interest in supramolecular chemistry with organometallic half-sandwich complexes.2 We report herein an efficient method for synthesizing molecular macrocycles of half-sandwich iridium and rhodium complexes via C-H and B-H activation directed muticomponent self-assembly under mild condition.

 

1) a). W.-X. Gao, H.-J. Feng, B.-B. Guo, Y. Lu, G.-X. Jin, Chem. Rev., 2020, 120, 6288; b). Y.-F. Han, G.-X. Jin, Accounts of Chemical Research 2014, 47, 3571; c). Y. Lu, H.-N. Zhang and, G.-X. Jin, Accounts of Chemical Research 2018, 51, 2148; d). Z. Cui and G-X. Jin, Nature Synthesis, 2022, 1, 635; d). H-N. Zhang and G-X. Jin, Nature Synthesis, 2025, 10.1038/s44160-024-00720-4.

2) a). H-N. Zhang, Y-J. Lin, G-X. Jin, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2021, 143, 1119; b). P-F. Cui, X-R. Liu, Y-J. Lin, Z-H. Li, G-X. Jin, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2021, 143, 5099; c). Z. Cui, X. Gao, Y. Lin, G-X. Jin, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2022, 144, 2379; d). P-F. Cui, X-R. Liu, Y. Lin, Z-H. Li, G-X. Jin, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2022, 144, 6558; e). S-T. Guo, P-F. Cui, X-R. Liu, Y-J. Lin, G-X. Jin, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2022, 144, 22221; f). H-N. Zhang, H-J. Feng, Y-J. Lin, G-X. Jin, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2023, 145, 4746; g). P.-F. Cui, Y-J. Lin, Z.-H. Li, G.- X. Jin, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2020, 142, 8532; e). S-J. Bao, Y. Zou, H-N. Zhang, and G.-X. Jin, PNAS, 2024, Vol. 121, e2407570121; e). H. Tang, H-N. Zhang, Y. Zou, X. Gao, G-X. Jin, PNAS, 2025, 122, e2426356122.