Cucurbituril-Based Supramolecular Self-Assemblies Formed in the Presence of Alkali Metal and Cadmium Ions

In the present work, we describe four previously unreported cucurbituril‐based coordination supramolecular self‐assemblies, formed in the presence of alkali metal and cadmium ions. Unexpectedly, in the presence of potassium or rubidium and cadmium cations, cucurbituril prefers to coordinate with cadmium to form three dimensional frameworks. The alkali metal ions seem to play a role of structure inducer in HCl medium and are not present in the final structures. In neutral aqueous solution, cadmium cations also show stronger coordination to cucurbituril and form one‐dimensional supramolecular chains through static electronic interactions. When the alkali metal ion is sodium in HCl solution, sodium ions show stronger coordination to cucurbituril and form one‐dimensional coordination polymers. [CdCl4]2– anions link the linear polymers through static electronic interactions between coordinated chloride anions and sodium cations, which results in the formation of two‐dimensional networks. We describe herein three new cucurbituril‐based coordination supramolecular arrays self‐assembled in the presence of alkali metal and cadmium ions.