Rational molecular design for multicomponent guest inclusion in the solid state: differential binding of small and large aromatic guests.

Tetraarylpyrene H that typifies a host system with three distinct domains for guest inclusion in the solid state is found to include different aromatic guests in the lattice and crystallize as a multicomponent molecular crystal. It is found to exhibit site-selective inclusion of the guests in that the large-sized guests such as biphenyl, anthracene, [2.2]paracyclophane, fluorene and pyrene are included selectively in the trough region, whereas small-sized benzene guest is bound in concave and/or basin regions. These results are of particular importance from the point of view of creating multicomponent molecular crystals based on rational design of the host structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]