cgbind: A Python module and web app for automated metallocage construction and host–guest characterization

Young TA, Gheorghe R, Duarte F

Metallocages offer a diverse and underexplored region of chemical space in which to search for novel catalysts and substrate hosts. However, the ability to tailor such structures toward applications in binding and catalysis is a challenging task. Here, we present an open-source computational toolkit, cgbind, that facilitates the construction, characterization, and prediction of functional metallocages. It employs known structural scaffolds as starting points and computationally efficient approaches for property evaluation. We demonstrate the ability of cgbind to construct libraries of cages with varied topologies and linker functionalities, generate accurate geometries (RMSD