A [3]ROTAXANE OF THE AMIDE TYPE

Two new rotaxane types, the [2]rotaxanes 12a,b and the [3]rotaxane 13, have been synthesised by treating the ''axle'' 7 with the stopper com ponent 9 in the presence of the ''wheel'' 8. A nonionic template inter mediate of type 10 is proposed. The [3]rotaxane 13 was only obtained w hen the chain of the ''axle'' had a certain length : with n = 1 only [ 2]rotaxane 12a was isolated. whereas with n = 2 the [3]rotaxane 13 was formed besides the [2]rotaxane 12b. This suggests that more extended rotaxanes and polyrotaxanes call be synthesised by the template strate gy.