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The self-sorting process of homobimetallic Pt(ii) terpyridyl acetylide dimers secured by a pair of Cucurbit[8]uril macrocycles with recognition motif mismatch can be quantified using a model comprising two coupled harmonic oscillators. 

Relative binding affinities of a series of nine rigid hydrocarbons towards the cavity formed by a portion of the inner wall of cucurbit[8]uril (CB[8]) and a positive auxiliary guest were determined by competitive 19 F NMR titrations in deuterium oxide. The corresponding free binding energies were corrected by the hydrocarbon computed solvation energies to obtain their free energies of transfer from the gas phase to the CB[8]/auxiliary guest cavity. These energies correlate linearly with the hydrocarbon static polarizabilities, thereby suggesting that the selectivity is driven, perhaps exclusively, by dispersive interactions between the hydrocarbons and the tailor-made cavity, regardless of the degree of unsaturation of the guests. The free energies of transfer also correlate linearly with the energy released upon introduction of the hydrocarbon into a pre-formed cavity extruded from a solvent (benzene) selected to mimic the polarity and polarizability of the CB[8]/auxiliary probe cavity – and this, with a unity slope. Among other features, this empirical model also accurately predicts the relative binding affinities of various rigid hydrocarbons to CB[6] and CB[7], as well as noble gases to CB[5], when the macrocycles are mimicked with pre-formed cavities in perfluorohexane or perfluorohexane/benzene mixtures, both being notoriously non-polar and non-polarizable environments. 

Platinum terpyridyl complexes, stacked on top of one another and secured as dimers with cucurbit[8]uril (CB[8]) in aqueous medium, were functionalized quantitatively and in situ with a pair of pentapeptides Phe-(Gly) 3 -Cys by grafting their cysteine residues to the Pt centers. The resulting CB[8]·(Pt·peptide) 2 assemblies were used to target secondary hosts CB[7] and CB[8] via their pair of phenylalanine residues, again in situ . A series of well-defined architectures, including a supramolecular “pendant necklace” with hybrid head-to-head and head-to-tail arrangements inside CB[8], were obtained during the self-sorting process after combining only 3 or 4 simple building units. 

A cucurbit[8]uril (CB[8])-secured platinum terpyridyl chloride dimer was used as a photosensitizer and hydrogen-evolving catalyst for the photoreduction of water. Volumes of produced hydrogen were up to 25 and 6 times larger than those obtained with the corresponding free and cucurbit[7]uril-bound platinum monomer, respectively, at equal Pt concentration. The thermodynamics of the proton-coupled electron transfer from the Pt( ii )–Pt( ii ) dimer to the corresponding Pt( ii )–Pt( iii )–H hydride key intermediate, as quantified by density functional theory, suggest that CB[8] secures the Pt( ii )–Pt( ii ) dimer in a particularly reactive conformation that promotes hydrogen formation. 

The torsional barriers along the C aryl –C aryl axis of a pair of isosteric disubstituted biphenyls were determined by variable temperature 1 H NMR spectroscopy in three solvents with contrasted hydrogen bond accepting abilities (1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane-d 2 , nitrobenzene-d 5 and dimethyl sulfoxide-d 6 ). One of the biphenyl scaffolds was substituted at its ortho and ortho ′ positions with N ′-acylcarbohydrazide groups that could engage in a pair of intramolecular N–H⋯O=C hydrogen bonding interactions at the ground state, but not at the transition state of the torsional isomerization pathway. The torsional barrier of this biphenyl was exceedingly low despite the presence of the hydrogen bonds (16.1, 15.6 and 13.4 kcal mol −1 in the three aforementioned solvents), compared to the barrier of the reference biphenyl (15.3 ± 0.1 kcal mol −1 on average). Density functional theory and the solvation model developed by Hunter were used to decipher the various forces at play. They highlighted the strong stabilization of hydrogen bond donating solutes not only by hydrogen bond accepting solvents, but also by weakly polar, yet polarizable solvents. As fast exchanges on the NMR time scale were observed above the melting point of dimethyl sulfoxide-d 6 , a simple but accurate model was also proposed to extrapolate low free activation energies in a pure solvent (dimethyl sulfoxide-d 6 ) from higher ones determined in mixtures of solvents (dimethyl sulfoxide-d 6 in nitrobenzene-d 5 ).