This project entails the investigation of the electrochemical behavior of an encapsulated redox active guest species, inside a cage-shaped host molecule, and its implications with reference to redox active proteins. The host, a modified Cram's octaimino hemicarcerand, and guest, ferrocene, are expected to associate to a great extent in polar media forming a non- covalently bonded complex, a hemicarceplex; the nonpolar inner cavity of the hemicarcerand can solvate the nonpolar, neutral ferrocene to a greater extent than the polar environment. The hemicarcerand, serving as the core, will be then insulated by cascading generations of Newkome's dendrimers, mimicking the structure of a redox active protein, and the effect of increasing the radius of this hemicarceplex on the rate of electron transfer reactions would be elucidated by voltammetric measurements.
