Coordination-directed self-assembly has become a well-established technique for the construction of functional supramolecular structures. In contrast to the most often exploited transition metals, trivalent lanthanides Ln(III) have been less utilized in the design of polynuclear self-assembled structures despite the wealth of stimulating applications of these elements. In particular, stereochemical control in the assembly of lanthanide chiral cage compounds is not easy to achieve in view of the usually large lability of the Ln(III) ions. We report here the first examples of stereoselective self-assembly of chiral luminescent europium coordination tetrahedral cages and their intriguing self-sorting behavior. Two pairs of R and S ligands are designed on the basis of the pyridine-2,6-dicarboxamide coordination unit, bis(tridentate) L1 and tris(tridentate) L2. Corresponding chiral Eu4(L1)6 and Eu4(L2)4 topological tetrahedral cages are independently assembled via edge- and face-capping design strategies, respectively. The chirality of the ligand is transferred during the self-assembly process to give either Δ or Λ metal stereochemistry. The self-assembled cages are characterized by NMR, high-resolution ESI-TOF-MS, and in one case by X-ray crystallography. Strict control of stereoselectivity is confirmed by CD spectroscopy and NMR enantiomeric differentiation experiments. Narcissistic self-sorting is observed in the self-assembly process when two differently shaped ligands L1 and L2 are mixed. More impressively, distinct self-sorting behavior between Eu4(L1)6 and Eu4(L2)4 coordination cages is observed for the first time when racemic mixtures of ligands are used. We envisage that chiral luminescent lanthanide tetrahedral cages could be used in chiroptical probes\sensors and enantioselective catalysis.

A 3D configuration of high-quality graphene sheets and a polyoxometalate [H7P8W48O184]33− showing excellent hydrogen evolution activity at extremely low overpotential.

Lanthanide-containing molecules have many potential applications in material science and biology, that is, luminescent sensing/labling, MRI, magnetic refrigeration, and catalysis among others. Coordination-directed self-assembly has shown great power in the designed construction of well-defined supramolecular systems. However, application of this strategy to the lanthanide edifices is challenging due to the complicated and greatly labile coordination numbers and geometries for lanthanides. Here we demonstrate a sensitive structural switching phenomenon during the stereocontrolled self-assembly of a group of LnL (Ln for lanthanides, L for organic ligands, and n = 1, 2, 4) compounds. Systematic variation of the offset distances between the two chelating arms on the bis(tridentate) ligands dictated the final outcomes of the lanthanide assembly, ranging from LnL helicates and LnL tetrahedra to LnL cubes. Remarkably, the borderline case leading to the formation of a mixture of the helicate and the tetrahedron was clearly revealed. Moreover, the concentration-dependent self-assembly of an unprecedented cubic LnL complex was also confirmed. The luminescent lanthanide cubes can serve as excellent turn-off sensors in explosives detection, featuring high selectivity and sensitivity toward picric acid. All complexes were confirmed by NMR, ESI-TOF-MS, and single crystal X-ray diffraction studies. Our results provide valuable design principles for the coordination self-assembly of multinuclear functional lanthanide architectures.