Allosterically driven multicomponent assembly

Bound to cooperate: Binding of dimethylviologen in the cavity of a Zn porphyrin host dramatically increases the affinity of the host for N-donating ligands and vice versa (see scheme). These positive heterotropic allosteric effects are exploited to direct complex equilibrium mixtures towards a single self-assembled species. This allosteric magnification was used to obtain a pentameric sandwich architecture from a complex mixture of components.