Cleavage of C−H Bonds for Building Tetranuclear Half-Sandwich Iridium Macrocycles with Ortho-Metalated Spacers

A new series of tetranuclear half-sandwich iridium macrocycles were successfully obtained via cleaving aromatic C−H bonds under mild conditions. In this context, the complexes 1−5 formed via aromatic C−H bond activation were fully characterized by IR, EA, 1H NMR, and single-crystal X-ray analysis. Thus, distorted-rectangle-shaped backbones were obviously indicated and directed to assemble nanochannel architectures via H-bonds, hydrophobic interactions, and CH···π stacking in complexes 1−5.