The Self‐Sorting Behavior of Circular Helicates and Molecular Knots and Links

We report on multicomponent self‐sorting to form open circular helicates of different sizes from a primary monoamine, Fe II ions, and dialdehyde ligand strands that differ in length and structure by only two oxygen atoms. The corresponding closed circular helicates that are formed from a diamine—a molecular Solomon link and a pentafoil knot—also self‐sort, but up to two of the Solomon‐link‐forming ligand strands can be accommodated within the pentafoil knot structure and are either incorporated or omitted depending on the stage that the components are mixed.