Inherent helicity in an extended tris-bipyridyl molecular cage.

A new molecular cage incorporating three bipyridyl units has been synthesised by a conventional multi-step procedure as well as, much more efficiently, by a Ni(ii) template procedure; an X-ray structure of the nickel complex shows that it adopts an exo configuration of each of the bridgehead nitrogen lone pairs, the central metal ion acts to promote a triple helical twist that extends [similar]22 [Angstrom] along the axial length of the molecule.