'Russian doll' molecules could really clean up

The Nitschke Group at the University of Cambridge designs hollow molecules that act as capsules or cages that enclose guest molecules. These cages have exciting potential applications in a variety of fields. They could, for example, be tailored to deliver drugs to where they are needed or to remove a pollutant molecule from a solution. In work recently published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the team report on the exciting discoveries they have made using hierarchically-nested host molecules, with an outer host encapsulating an inner host, which holds the guest molecule. In their newly-designed 'Russian doll' molecules, they found that encapsulation can improve the binding properties of the inner host. Their results also present a novel way to fix the stereochemistry of a host framework. Such molecules could be used in applications that rely on molecular-recognition, such as catalysis, separations, drug delivery, and sensing.