Molecular tectonics — Use of urethanes and ureas derived from tetraphenylmethane and tetraphenylsilane to build porous chiral hydrogen-bonded networks

Tetraphenylmethane, tetraphenylsilane, and simple derivatives with substituents that do not engage in hydrogen bonding typically crystallize as close-packed structures with essentially no space available for the inclusion of guests. In contrast, derivatives with hydrogen-bonding groups are known to favor the formation of open networks that include significant amounts of guests. To explore this phenomenon, we synthesized six new derivatives 5a–5e and 6a of tetraphenylmethane and tetraphenylsilane with urethane and urea groups at the para positions, crystallized the compounds, and determined their structures by X-ray crystallography. As expected, all six compounds crystallize to form porous three-dimensional hydrogen-bonded networks. In the case of tetraurea 5e, 66% of the volume of the crystals is accessible to guests, and guests can be exchanged in single crystals without loss of crystallinity. Of special note are: (i) the use of tetrakis(4-isocyanatophenyl)methane (1f) as a precursor for making enantiomerically pure tetraurethanes and tetraureas, including compounds 5b, 5c; and (ii) their subsequent crystallization to give porous chiral hydrogen-bonded networks. Such materials promise to include chiral guests enantioselectively and to be useful in the separation of racemates, asymmetric catalysis, and other applications.Key words: crystal engineering, molecular tectonics, hydrogen bonding, networks, porosity, urethanes, ureas, tetraphenylmethane, tetraphenylsilane.