Making molecular Borromean rings. A gram-scale synthetic procedure for the undergraduate organic lab

Abstract

The undergraduate curriculum inherently lags behind graduate-level research. Oftentimes, undergraduates are conducting experiments that were introduced 30 or more years ago. By way of contrast, the molecular BRs are still undergoing detailed investigations (8) in our group. In assembling and analyzing the BRs, students are exposed to fundamental concepts, symmetry point groups, metal-ligand dative bond formation, synthetic organic chemistry, and dynamic covalent chemistry. As the conceptual basis for BR formation stretches across so many subdisciplines of chemistry, we believe that this experiment would serve as a nice capstone project to culminate any comprehensive organic laboratory course.