Nomenclature for catenanes, rotaxanes, molecular knots, and assemblies derived from these structural elements

We introduce a systematic nomenclature for mechanically linked molecules - such as catenanes, rotaxanes, and assemblies derived from these structural elements - which comes up to the increasing complexity of already synthesiz ed interlocked molecules and the ones to be expected in future. Like in the naming of other substance classes (polycycles, phanes, crown compounds, po dands, dendrimers) we attach importance to the fact, that certain units in the name, e.g. expressions in brackets, quickly convey an idea of the molec ular architecture. Furthermore, this modular nomenclature reveals as many a nalogies to the IUPAC nomenclature as possible.