Molecular Tetrahedrons as Selective and Efficient Ion Transporters via a Two-Station Swing-Relay Mechanism

The traditional approach to utilizing an ion-relay mechanism for ion transport requires three or more ion-relay stations.Herein,we describe a novel strategy,incorporating a swing action to realize a minimal ion-relay mechanism via only two relay stations.This swing-relay mechanism was achieved using a class of crown ether-appended,long-armed molecular tetrahedrons(MTs).These MTs comprise ion-relaying crown units attached to a rigid tetrahedral core via flexible alkyl linkers,which act as the mobile arms and endow the crown units with great mobility to swing.