Helicate self-assembly from heterotopic ligand strands of specific binding site sequence

Abstract

Linear ligands containing a sequence of three bipyridine B and terpyridine T units form homo- or hetero-nuclear duplex helicates with Cu^I, Cu^II and Fe^II ions; of particular interest is the case of a [(BTB)Cu^IICu^IICu^II(TBT)] combination which amounts to the translation of one strand into the other one by virtue of the B–T correspondence established by the five-coordinate Cu^II ions.