M4L4 cerium cages assembled from ligands with lower symmetry as a molecular flask

Cerium-based tetranuclear polyhedra Ce-YB1 and Ce-YB2 assembled from lower symmetrical ligands without three fold axle, can work as molecular flasks to catalyze cyanosilylation reactions of aldehyde molecules with suitable sizes. The size-selectively catalytic behavior of the cages was investigated by using large aldehydes as the substrate, based on which the corresponding cyanosilylation reactions could not be carried out on the same condition.