Assembly of amphiphilic baskets into stimuli-responsive vesicles. Developing a strategy for the detection of organophosphorus chemical nerve agents.

We designed basket 1 to comprise a C3-symmetric hydrophobic cage (477 Å(3)) at its southern edge and three polar ammonium caps at the northern edge. This amphiphilic molecule was observed to assemble into large unilamellar vesicles (350 nm, TEM) in water and thereby entrap dimethyl phenylphosphonate (184 Å(3)) in its cavity (K(app) = (1.97 ± 0.02) × 10(3) M(-1)). The entrapment of the organophosphonate, akin to soman in size (186 Å(3)), triggers the transformation of the vesicular material into nanoparticles (100 nm, TEM). Stimuli-responsive vesicles, containing baskets of type 1 in their bilayer membrane, are unique assemblies and important for obtaining novel sensing devices.