Postsynthetic modification of a series of hexacationic organic cages containing pyridinium and hydrazone groups gave a new family of neutral organic cages through a high-yielding single-step reduction reaction. The reaction selectively reduces all six pyridinium rings to 1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridines but leaves the hydrazone C═N bond untouched. The neutral cages display strong sulfate binding to give cage·(SO
Faulkner et al. (Fri,) studied this question.