Chapter 6: Properties and Reactivities of Metal Complexes within Organic Nanocontainers

As with metalloenzymes, where the particular nanoenvironment provided by the organic peptide scaffold around the metal centre alters significantly its properties in catalysis, the combination of metal complexes with artificial organic hosts provides new solvation effects that heavily alter their physicochemical properties. This contribution covers relevant examples of interaction between metal complexes and their purely organic unimolecular hosts, like cucurbiturils, cyclodextrins, resorcinarene cavitands, as well as self-assembling capsules formed through hydrogen bonds or the hydrophobic effect, either in organic solvents or in water. We focus on the unique properties experienced by the encapsulated metal complex in comparison with the same free species in solution.