Wirt-Gast-Komplexe mit geschlossenen, halboffenen und gestreckten Rezeptoren: hydrophobe Effekte und induzierte Pol-Dipol-Wechselwirkungen

The Cation-π Interaction in Small-Molecule Catalysis

Catalysis by small molecules (≤1000 Da, 10(-9)  m) that are capable of binding and activating substrates through attractive, noncovalent interactions has emerged as an important approach in organic and organometallic chemistry. While the canonical noncovalent interactions, including hydrogen bonding, ion pairing, and π stacking, have become mainstays of catalyst design, the cation-π interaction has been comparatively underutilized in this context since its discovery in the 1980s. However, like a hydrogen bond, the cation-π interaction exhibits a typical binding affinity of several kcal mol(-1) with substantial directionality. These properties render it attractive as a design element for the development of small-molecule catalysts, and in recent years, the catalysis community has begun to take advantage of these features, drawing inspiration from pioneering research in molecular recognition and structural biology. This Review surveys the burgeoning application of the cation-π interaction in catalysis.

Influence of highly preorganised 7,7-diphenylnorbornane in the free energy of edge-to-face aromatic interactions

The influence of preorganised 7,7-diphenylnorbornane in the stability (Ka) of host-guest complexes as well as in the determination of the energy of edge-to-face aromatic interactions has been investigated. The guest molecules studied bind more strongly with hosts that contain the cofacial 7.7-diphenylnorbornane subunit than with similar hosts that have a 1,1-diphenylcyclohexane subunit. On the other hand, the value of the edge-to-face aromatic interactions calculated for our complexes (-0.2 +/- 0.6 kJmol(-1)) is significantly lower (by a factor of seven) than the one previously reported in the literature. This result highlights the importance of entropic factors in the determination of weak noncovalent interactions.