A [3]Rotaxane of the Amide Type

Abstract Two new rotaxane types, the [2]rotaxanes 12a,b and the [3]rotaxane 13 , have been synthesised by treating the “axle” 7 with the stopper component 9 in the presence of the “wheel” 8 . A nonionic template intermediate of type 10 is proposed. The [3]rotaxane 13 was only obtained when the chain of the “axle” had a certain length: with n = 1 only [2]rotaxane 12 a was isolated, whereas with n = 2 the [3]rotaxane 13 was formed besides the [2]rotaxane 12 b . This suggests that more extended rotaxanes and polyrotaxanes can be synthesised by the template strategy.