Straightforward and rapid modification techniques allow for the use of porous coordination cages in network solids, flexible adsorbents, and stimuli-responsive, peptide-based materials.

Porous coordination cages represent simple molecular versions of complex solid-state materials. While tunable, their modification remains challenging. This work details a new toolkit for the rapid modification of these cages.

• We have shown, for the first time, that click chemistry can be used to functionalize multiple families of porous cages.
• Incorporation of certain functional groups onto porous cages has been challenging, this approach can be used to dramatically expand the chemistry of porous cages.
• Utilization of porous cages as building blocks in peptide-based materials (IRG 1) was contingent on the development of modification techniques for the cages.
• With this toolkit in hand, work toward the development of higher-dimensional peptide bundlemers is progressing rapidly.