Piperazine bridged resorcinarene cages.

The one-pot Mannich condensation of resorcinarenes with piperazine and an excess of formaldehyde under high dilution conditions results in a helical cage, namely, a covalently linked dimer of two resorcinarenes connected via four piperazine bridges in yields ranging from 20 to 40%. The compounds were analyzed by NMR spectroscopy, ESI mass spectrometry, and single crystal X-ray diffraction. The helical cages can encapsulate small guest molecules by adapting the cavity volume by changing the helical pitch according to the guest size.