Two anionic tetrahedral cages were self-assembled as the only observable products in weakly basic water via imine condensation. The success of the high-yielding formation of the cages in water relies on (i) multivalency enhancing the stability of the imine bond and affording these cages water compatibility and (ii) a guest template with a complementary size and geometry that provides a hydrophobic driving force by occupying the corresponding cage cavity. When all four precursors, namely two trisaldehydes and two trisamines, were combined in water, narcissistic self-sorting occurred when both guest templates were present. In organic media where the hydrophobic effect is absent, narcissistic self-sorting did not occur in the analogous cage systems, confirming the importance of guest templates.

中文翻译：

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通过亚胺形成来客诱导的水中自恋自分类


两个阴离子四面体笼是通过亚胺缩合在弱碱性水中自组装的唯一可观察到的产物。笼在水中高产率形成的成功依赖于（i）多价性增强亚胺键的稳定性并提供这些笼的水相容性和（ii）具有互补尺寸和几何形状的客体模板，提供疏水驱动通过占据相应的保持架空腔来施加力。当所有四种前体，即两种三醛和两种三胺在水中结合时，当两个客体模板都存在时，就会发生自恋自排序。在不存在疏水效应的有机介质中，类似的笼系统中不会发生自恋自分类，这证实了客体模板的重要性。