Synthesis and structural studies of metallamacrotricycles based on a metacyclophane in 1,3-alternate conformation bearing four imidazolyl units.

The combination of a [1111]metacyclophane blocked in 1,3-alternate conformation and bearing four imidazole units with MX2 (M = Co, Cu, Zn and Hg; X = Cl or Br) complexes leads to the formation of a series of analogous neutral metallamacrotricycles. In all cases, the structure of the binuclear complexes has been studied by X-ray diffraction methods on single crystals.