The preparation of topologically nontrivial molecules is often assisted by covalent, supramolecular or coordinative templates that provide spatial pre-organization for all components. Herein, we report a trefoil knot that can be self-assembled efficiently in water without involving additional templates. The direct condensation of three equivalents of a tetraformyl precursor and six equivalents of a chiral diamine produces successfully a [3 + 6] trefoil knot whose intrinsic handedness is dictated by the stereochemical configuration of the diamine linkers. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that imine condensation is not amenable to use in water, the multivalent cooperativity between all the imine bonds within the framework makes this trefoil knot robust in the aqueous environment. Furthermore, the presence of water is proven to be essential for the trefoil knot formation. A topologically trivial macrocycle composed of two tetraformyl and four diamino building blocks is obtained when a similar reaction is performed in organic media, indicating that hydrophobic effect is a major driving force behind the scene.

Self‐assembly of host molecules in aqueous media via metal–ligand coordination is well developed. However, the preparation of purely covalent counterparts in water has remained a formidable task. An anionic tetrahedron cage was successfully self‐assembled in a [4+4] manner by condensing a trisamine and a trisformyl in water. Even although each individual imine bond is rather labile and apt to hydrolyze in water, the tetrahedron is remarkably stable or inert due to multivalence. The tetrahedral cages, as well as its neutral counterparts dissolved in organic solvent, have homochirality, namely that their four propeller‐shaped trisformyl residues adopt the same rotational conformation. The cage is able to take advantage of hydrophobic effect to accommodate a variety of guest molecules in water. When a chiral guest was recognized, the formation of one enantiomer of the cage became more favored relative to the other. As a consequence, the cage could be produced in an enantioselective manner. The tetrahedron is able to maintain its chirality after removal of the chiral guest—probably on account of the cooperative occurrence of intramolecular forces that restrict the intramolecular flipping of phenyl units in the cage framework.

Oxime,w hose dynamic nature was reported to be switchable between ON/OFF by tuning the acidity,isemployed in anovel type of dynamic covalent approach that is amenable to use in water for self-assembly of purely organic molecules with complex topology.I ns trongly acidic conditions,t he dynamic nature of oxime is turned ON,allowing occurrence of error-checking and therefore acatenane and amacrocycle selfassembled in high yields.Inneutral conditions,oxime ceases to be dynamic,w hich helps to trap the self-assembled products even when the driving forces of their formation are removed. We envision that this switchable behaviour might help,atleast partially,t or esolve ac ommonly encountered drawbacko f dynamic covalent chemistry,n amely that the intrinsic stability of the self-assembled products containing dynamic bonds,such as imine or hydrazone,are often jeopardized by their reversible nature.Imine (-C=N-) condensation [1] has been considered as one of the most promising reaction motifs in dynamic covalent chemistry (DCC). [2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Its reversible nature allows the systems to perform error-checking and self-correcting during searching for their thermodynamic minimum. As ac onsequence, avariety of complex molecules [9][10][11][12][13] are obtained in high yields, especially when these self-assembled molecules are sophisticatedly designed to represent the most thermodynamically favoured products.One of the major disadvantages of iminebased DCC is that, this dynamic bond is apt to undergo hydrolysis in aqueous solution. Therefore,the self-assembled products containing imine can hardly realize their functions in water, the medium of life.H ydrazone (-C=NÀN-), [14] am ore robust counterpart of imine,w as thus employed to develop water-compatible DCC approaches.T he higher stability of hydrazone results from the delocalization of the lone electron pair in the adjacent nitrogen atom onto to the C = Nd ouble bond, resulting in acharge-separated resonance form, namely -C À ÀN=N + -. Thepartially negatively-charged carbon atom is therefore less electrophilic,p rotecting the C=Nb ond from nucleophilic attack by water molecules or other nucleophiles. Avariety of macrocycles, [15,16] cages, [17] catenanes [18,19] as well as knots [20] were obtained in water based on hydrazone condensation in pure water. Thed ynamic nature of hydra-zone,however, jeopardizes the inherent stabilities of the selfassembled products.F or example,w eo bserved that the catenanes [18,19] containing hydrazone undergo decomposition via hydrazone exchange during counteranion exchange or solvent removal, even in the condition of low temperature and/or in the absence of acid catalyst. Oxime, [21] namely -C= N À O-, is reported [22] to be more robust than hydrazone both thermodynamically and kinetically.T here are af ew reasons that can explain the enhanced stability of oxime compared to its hydrazone counterparts.F irst, the NH 2 unit in either the alkoxyamino (-OÀNH 2 )o rh ydrazide (-NHÀNH 2 )p recursor could undergo protonation in water, which...

Condensing a bisaldehyde and a bisacylhydrazide in water in the presence of cucurbit[8]uril, produced an ultra-large ring whose framework contains more than one hundred atoms.