Fig. 1. (A) Construction of Pd8L4 metallacycle 2 from a PDI-based ligand 1via a spontaneous deprotonation self-assembly process. (B) 1H NMR spectra (400 MHz, DMSO-d6, 298 K) of ligand 1 and metallacycle 2 with signals assigned to Ha–Hf on ligand 1 and Hg–Hj on the Bpy group, (C) 1H DOSY spectrum of metallacycle 2. (D) ESI-TOF-MS spectrum of metallacycle 2 showing the observed and simulated isotopic patterns of the 8+ peak. (E) The X-ray structure of metallacycle 2. For clarity, anions and solvent molecules have been omitted.
