Self‐Assembly Processes of Pd(II)‐ and Pt(II)‐Linked Discrete Self‐Assemblies Revealed by QASAP

Recent progress in the understanding of discrete coordination self‐assembly processes is summarized. Aiming to make the problems in the investigation of molecular self‐assembly processes clear, a novel method (QASAP: quantitative analysis of self‐assembly process) to obtain the information about all intermediates that are transiently produced during the self‐assembly in an indirect way was introduced. Through the application of QASAP to over ten kinds of Pd(II)‐ or Pt(II)‐linked discrete coordination self‐assemblies, similarities between molecular self‐assembly and protein folding, general principles underlying coordination self‐assembly, and the mechanism of homochiral self‐sorting along the self‐assembly pathway have been revealed and are discussed below.