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Modular frameworks featuring well-defined pore structures in microscale domains establish tailor-made porous materials. For open molecular solids however, maintaining long-range order after desolvation is inherently challenging, since packing is usually governed by only a few supramolecular interactions. Here we report on two series of nanocubes obtained by co-condensation of two different hexahydroxy tribenzotriquinacenes (TBTQs) and benzene-1,4-diboronic acids (BDBAs) with varying linear alkyl chains in 2,5-position. n-Butyl groups at the apical position of the TBTQ vertices yielded soluble model compounds, which were analyzed by mass spectrometry and NMR spectroscopy. In contrast, methyl-substituted cages spontaneously crystallized as isostructural and highly porous solids with BET surface areas and pore volumes of up to 3426 m\(^2\) g\(^{-1}\) and 1.84 cm\(^3\) g\(^{-1}\). Single crystal X-ray diffraction and sorption measurements revealed an intricate cubic arrangement of alternating micro- and mesopores in the range of 0.97–2.2 nm that are fine-tuned by the alkyl substituents at the BDBA linker.
A new series of [Pd2(L)4] cages based on photochromic dithienylethene (DTE) ligands allowed us to gain insight into the successive photoswitching of multiple DTE moieties in a confined metallo-supramolecular assembly. Three new X-ray structures of [Pd2(o-L4)4], [Pd2(o-L1)2(c-L1)2] and [Pd2(c-L1)4] (o-L and c-L = open and closed forms of DTE ligands, respectively) were obtained. The structures deliver snapshots of three different combinations of DTE photoisomeric states within the cage, facilitating a comparison of the all-open with the all-closed, and most notably, an intermediate form where open and closed switches co-exist in the same cage. Moreover, a series of spherical anionic borate clusters was introduced in order to study their roles in the light-controllable host–guest chemistry. The binding guests show higher affinities with the flexible open cage [Pd2(o-L1)4] than with the rigid closed cage [Pd2(c-L1)4]. For the [B12F12]2− guest, thermodynamic data obtained from NMR experiments was compared to results from isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC).