Reactions in Endohedral Functionalized Cages

Abstract

The introduction of enhanced functionalization is a key aspect in the current design of cage chemistry. At the moment, several approaches are intensively investigated. The synthesis of cage compounds that display endohedral functionalization plays a key role among them. Here, the studies of reactions that occur in endohedral-functionalized cage compounds is reviewed. After an introduction in current trends in cage-chemistry the discussion of reactions in endohedral-cage compounds is divided into three sections. These are: 1) Endohedral groups that are by themselves functional, 2) endohedral groups that can bind to a transition-metal complex and 3) endohedral groups that can bind by themselves to a metal. The article closes with an outlook on additional current developments in the field of endohedral-functionalized cage-compounds, which may contribute in the future towards reactivity in cage compounds.