We describe the stepwise construction of an 8-component self-sorted system ( 1 - 8 ) by the sequential addition of components. This process occurs via a large number of states (28 = 256) and even a larger number of pathways (8! = 40320). A pathway ( 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 4 , 3 , 2 , then 1 ) that is self-sorted at every step along the way has been demonstrated experimentally. Another pathway ( 1 , 8 , 3 , 5 , 4 , 7 , 2 , then 6 ) resembles a game of musical chairs and exhibits interesting shuttling of guest molecules among hosts. The majority of pathways - unlike the special ones described above - proceed through several non self-sorted states. We characterized the remainder of the 40320 pathways by simulation using Gepasi and describe the influence of concentration and binding constants on the fidelity of the self-sorting pathways.
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