Fullerene Complexation in a Hydrogen-Bonded Porphyrin Receptor via Induced-Fit: Cooperative Action of Tautomerization and C–H···π Interactions

[Image: see text] A supramolecular chiral hydrogen-bonded tetrameric aggregate possessing a large cavity and tetraarylporphyrin substituents was assembled using alternating 4H- and 2H-bonds between ureidopyrimidinone and isocytosine units, respectively. The aggregation mode was rationally shifted from social to narcissistic self-sorting by changing urea substituent size only. The H-bonded tetramer forms a strong complex with C(60) guest, at the same time undergoing remarkable structural changes. Namely, the cavity adjusts to the guest via keto-to-enol tautomerization of the ureidopyrimidinone unit and as a result, porphyrin substituents move apart from each other in a scissor blade-like opening fashion. The rearrangement is accompanied by C–H···π interaction between the alkyl solubilizing groups and the nearby placed porphyrin π-systems. The latter interaction was found to be crucial for the guest complexation event, providing energetic compensation for otherwise costly tautomerization. We showed that only the systems possessing sufficiently long alkyl chains capable of interacting with a porphyrin ring are able to form a complex with C(60). The structural rearrangement of the tetramer was quantitatively characterized by electron paramagnetic resonance pulsed dipolar spectroscopy measurements using photogenerated triplets of porphyrin and C(60) as spin probes. Further exploring the C–H···π interaction as a decisive element for the C(60) recognition, we investigated the guest-induced self-sorting phenomenon using scrambled tetramer assemblies composed of two types of monomers possessing alkyl chains of different lengths. The presence of the fullerene guest has enabled the selective scavenging of monomers capable of C–H···π interaction to form homo-tetrameric aggregates.