Functionalization of Cage Amines with Pendant Aromatic and Heteroaromatic Substituents

Structural studies have confirmed that it is possible to exploit the relatively low nucleophilicity of the “external” amino substituents on the Co^III complex of 1,8-diaminosarcophagine (“sarcophagine” = sar = 3,6,10,13,16,19-hexaazabicyclo[6.6.6]icosane) in acylation and alkylation reactions leading to a variety of functionalized cage amine complexes. With the appropriate choice of solvent, all these reactions can be conducted with high efficiency, and the new complexes display properties foreshadowing the application of cage systems in, for example, electroactive polymers.