Preparation of a porphyrinic bis(pyridyl aldehyde) and its supramolecular complexes.

Shape-specific molecular assemblies require the preparation of the constituent building blocks with the necessary properties to bias exclusive formation of the proposed structures. In this work, a novel linear porphyrin dialdehyde was synthesised and used to assemble a supramolecular grid via Cu(i) heteroleptic phenanthroline/pyridyl imine complexation, and a tetrahedral cage via Fe(ii) pyridyl imine coordination.We gratefully acknowledge funding from the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACYT) Mexico (MAAG) and the Cambridge NanoDTC (CRG).This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the Royal Society of Chemistry via http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C5CC06399