Influence of H-Bond Strength on Chelate Cooperativity

A Molecular Replication Process Drives Supramolecular Polymerization

Supramolecular polymers are materials in which the connections between monomers in the polymer main chain are non-covalent bonds. This area has seen rapid expansion in the last two decades and has been exploited in several applications. However, suitable contiguous hydrogen-bond arrays can be difficult to synthesize, placing some limitations on the deployment of supramolecular polymers. We have designed a hydrogen-bonded polymer assembled from a bifunctional monomer composed of two replicating templates separated by a rigid spacer. This design allows the autocatalytic formation of the polymer main chain through the self-templating properties of the replicators and drives the synthesis of the bifunctional monomer from its constituent components in solution. The template-directed 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction between nitrone and maleimide proceeds with high diastereoselectivity, affording the bifunctional monomer. The high binding affinity between the self-complementary replicating templates that allows the bifunctional monomer to polymerize in solution is derived from the positive cooperativity associated with this binding process. The assembly of the polymer in solution has been investigated by diffusion-ordered NMR spectroscopy. Both microcrystalline and thin films of the polymeric material can be prepared readily and have been characterized by powder X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. These results demonstrate that the approach described here is a valid one for the construction of supramolecular polymers and can be extended to systems where the rigid spacer between the replicating templates is replaced by one carrying additional function.

Quantification of cooperativity in the self-assembly of H-bonded rosettes

The self-assembly of triaminopyrimidines with barbiturates and with cyanates was investigated in chloroform solution. Equimolar mixtures of two complementary components form stable macrocyclic 3 : 3 complexes (rosettes). The thermodynamics of self-assembly were quantified by using 1H NMR titrations to measure the strength of pairwise H-bonding interactions between two rosette components (K), allosteric cooperativity associated with formation of a second H-bonding interaction with each component, and the effective molarity for cyclisation of the rosette motif (EM). Pyrimidine-cyanurate interactions are an order of magnitude more favourable than pyrimidine-barbiturate interactions, so the cyanurate rosettes are significantly more stable than barbiturate rosettes. There is no allosteric cooperativity associated with rosette formation, but the chelate cooperativity quantified by the product K EM is exceptionally high (102-104), indicating that there are no other species present that compete with rosette assembly. The values of EM for rosette formation are approximately 2 M for all four rosettes studied and are not affected by differences in peripheral substituents or intrinsic H-bond strength.

Coinage metal dimers as the noncovalent interaction acceptors: study of the σ-lump interactions

The ability of group 11 coinage metal dimers M₂ (M = Cu, Ag, Au) to favorably interact with different electron acceptors XCN (X = H, F, Cl, Br) was evaluated with the M06-L functional and the aug-cc-pVDZ basis sets (aug-cc-pVDZ-pp basis sets were used for copper, silver, and gold atoms). The metal dimers M₂ (M = Cu, Ag, Au) have negative regions of electrostatic potential (ESP) in the middle of the M-M bond, namely the σ-lumps. The positive ESP outside the X atom along the extension of the X-C bond in XCN (X = H, F, Cl, Br) could interact with the σ-lump of metal dimers to form the σ-lump interactions. When M remains unchanged, the σ-lump interactions between M₂ (M = Cu, Ag, Au) and XCN (X = F, Cl, Br) increase gradually in the order of F, Cl and Br. The electrostatic interactions are the dominant attractive interactions in the M₂XCN (X = F, Cl, Br) halogen-bonded interactions. The orbital interactions contribute more than the electrostatic interactions in the M₂HCN hydrogen-bonded interactions. Molecular graphs after orbital separation show that the π orbitals contribute the most to the σ-lump interactions; the σ and δ orbitals also have some contributions. Charge transfer occurs in the formation of the σ-lump interactions, mainly from the M-M bonding orbital of metal dimers to the X-C anti-bonding orbital. The M₂BrCN (M = Cu, Ag, Au) series complexes possess the largest charge transfer from donor to acceptor orbitals.

Guidelines for the assembly of hydrogen-bonded macrocycles

This article highlights selected examples on the synthesis of hydrogen-bonded macrocycles from ditopic molecules and analyze the main factors, often interrelated, that influence the equilibrium between ring and chain species.

Understanding coordination equilibria in solution and gel-phase [2]rotaxanes

An active-metal template approach has been use to synthesise solution and surface bound addressable [2]rotaxanes giving unique insights into thermodynamic equilibria in interlocked structures.

Enhanced Chelate Cooperativity in Polar Solvents

High-throughput UV-vis titrations in combination with chemical double-mutant cycles (DMCs) have been used to study the competition of a polar solvent for formation of intramolecular H-bonds. Twenty-four different zinc porphyrin-pyridine complexes were investigated in mixtures of toluene and phenol. DMCs were used to determine effective molarities (EM) for the formation of intramolecular phenol-amide H-bonds as a function of solvent composition. The values of EM increase by an order of magnitude with increasing concentrations of the more polar solvent, phenol. Phenol solvates the amide groups on the ligands strongly, increasing the steric bulk and destabilizing the complexes. These adverse steric interactions are removed when intramolecular H-bonds are formed and therefore provide an increased driving force for formation of cooperative interactions. The result is that the effects of competitive interactions with polar solvents that reduce binding affinity are attenuated to a significant extent by a corresponding increase in EM in multivalent complexes.

H-Bond Self-Assembly: Folding versus Duplex Formation

Linear oligomers equipped with complementary H-bond donor (D) and acceptor (A) sites can interact via intermolecular H-bonds to form duplexes or fold via intramolecular H-bonds. These competing equilibria have been quantified using NMR titration and dilution experiments for seven systems featuring different recognition sites and backbones. For all seven architectures, duplex formation is observed for homo-sequence 2-mers (AA·DD) where there are no competing folding equilibria. The corresponding hetero-sequence AD 2-mers also form duplexes, but the observed self-association constants are strongly affected by folding equilibria in the monomeric states. When the backbone is flexible (five or more rotatable bonds separating the recognition sites), intramolecular H-bonding is favored, and the folded state is highly populated. For these systems, the stability of the AD·AD duplex is 1-2 orders of magnitude lower than that of the corresponding AA·DD duplex. However, for three architectures which have more rigid backbones (fewer than five rotatable bonds), intramolecular interactions are not observed, and folding does not compete with duplex formation. These systems are promising candidates for the development of longer, mixed-sequence synthetic information molecules that show sequence-selective duplex formation.

Mix and match recognition modules for the formation of H-bonded duplexes

Oligomeric molecules equipped with complementary H-bond recognition sites form stable duplexes in non-polar solvents. The use of a single H-bond between a good H-bond donor and a good H-bond acceptor as the recognition motif appended to a non-polar backbone leads to an architecture with interchangeable recognition alphabets. The interactions of three different families of H-bond acceptor oligomers (pyridine, pyridine N-oxide or phosphine oxide recognition module) with a family of H-bond donor oligomers (phenol recognition module) are compared. All three donor-acceptor combinations form stable duplexes, where the stability of the 1 : 1 complex increases with increasing numbers of recognition modules. The effective molarity for formation of intramolecular H-bonds that lead to zipping up of the duplex (EM) increases with decreasing flexibility of the recognition modules: 14 mM for the phosphine oxides which are connected to the backbone via a flexible linker; 40 mM for the pyridine N-oxides which have three fewer degrees of torsional freedom, and 80 mM for the pyridines where the geometry of the H-bond is more directional. However, the pyridine-phenol H-bond is an order of magnitude weaker than the other two types of H-bond, so overall the pyridine N-oxides form the most stable duplexes with the highest degree of cooperativity. The results show that it is possible to use different recognition motifs with the same duplex architecture, and this makes it possible to tune overall stabilities of the complexes by varying the components.

Experimental Binding Energies in Supramolecular Complexes

On the basis of many literature measurements, a critical overview is given on essential noncovalent interactions in synthetic supramolecular complexes, accompanied by analyses with selected proteins. The methods, which can be applied to derive binding increments for single noncovalent interactions, start with the evaluation of consistency and additivity with a sufficiently large number of different host-guest complexes by applying linear free energy relations. Other strategies involve the use of double mutant cycles, of molecular balances, of dynamic combinatorial libraries, and of crystal structures. Promises and limitations of these strategies are discussed. Most of the analyses stem from solution studies, but a few also from gas phase. The empirically derived interactions are then presented on the basis of selected complexes with respect to ion pairing, hydrogen bonding, electrostatic contributions, halogen bonding, π-π-stacking, dispersive forces, cation-π and anion-π interactions, and contributions from the hydrophobic effect. Cooperativity in host-guest complexes as well as in self-assembly, and entropy factors are briefly highlighted. Tables with typical values for single noncovalent free energies and polarity parameters are in the Supporting Information.

Mix and match backbones for the formation of H-bonded duplexes

The formation of well-defined supramolecular assemblies involves competition between intermolecular and intramolecular interactions, which is quantified by effective molarity. Formation of a duplex between two oligomers equipped with recognition sites displayed along a non-interacting backbone requires that once one intermolecular interaction has been formed, all subsequent interactions take place in an intramolecular sense. The efficiency of this process is governed by the geometric complementarity and conformational flexibility of the backbone linking the recognition sites. Here we report a series of phosphine oxide H-bond acceptor AA 2-mers and phenol H-bond donor DD 2-mers, where the two recognition sites are connected by isomeric backbone modules that vary in geometry and flexibility. All AA and DD combinations form stable AA·DD duplexes, where two cooperative H-bonds lead to an increase in stability of an order of magnitude compared with the corresponding A·D complexes that can only form one H-bond. For all six possible backbone combinations, the effective molarity for duplex formation is approximately constant (7-20 mM). Thus strict complementarity and high degrees of preorganisation are not required for efficient supramolecular assembly. Provided there is some flexibility, quite different backbone modules can be used interchangeably to construct stable H-bonded duplexes.

Hydrogen-Bonded Macrocyclic Supramolecular Systems in Solution and on Surfaces

Cyclization into closed assemblies is the most recurrent approach to realize the noncovalent synthesis of discrete, well-defined nanostructures. This review article particularly focuses on the noncovalent synthesis of monocyclic hydrogen-bonded systems that are self-assembled from a single molecule with two binding-sites. Taking advantage of intramolecular binding events, which are favored with respect to intermolecular binding in solution, can afford quantitative amounts of a given supramolecular species under thermodynamic control. The size of the assembly depends on geometric issues such as the monomer structure and the directionality of the binding interaction, whereas the fidelity achieved relies largely on structural preorganization, low degrees of conformational flexibility, and templating effects. Here, we discuss several examples described in the literature in which cycles of different sizes, from dimers to hexamers, are studied by diverse solution or surface characterization techniques.

Cooperative duplex formation by synthetic H-bonding oligomers

Flexible phenol-phosphine oxide oligomers show promise as a new class of synthetic information molecule.

A series of flexible oligomers equipped with phenol H-bond donors and phosphine oxide H-bond acceptors have been synthesised using reductive amination chemistry. H-bonding interactions between complementary oligomers leads to the formation of double-stranded complexes which were characterised using NMR titrations and thermal denaturation experiments. The stability of the duplex increases by one order of magnitude for every H-bonding group added to the chain. Similarly, the enthalpy change for duplex assembly and the melting temperature for duplex denaturation both increase with increasing chain length. These observations indicate that H-bond formation along the oligomers is cooperative despite the flexible backbone, and the effective molarity for intramolecular H-bond formation (14 mM) is sufficient to propagate the formation of longer duplexes using this approach. The product K EM, which is used to quantify chelate cooperativity is 5, which means that each H-bond is more than 80% populated in the assembled duplex. The modular design of these oligomers represents a general strategy for the design of synthetic information molecules that could potentially encode and replicate chemical information in the same way as nucleic acids.

Influence of receptor flexibility on intramolecular H-bonding interactions

Atropisomers of a series of zinc tetraphenyl porphyrins were synthesized and used as supramolecular receptors. Rotation around the porphyrin-meso phenyl bonds is restricted by installing ortho-chlorine substituents on the phenyl groups. The chlorine substituents allowed chromatographic separation of atropisomers, which did not interconvert at room temperature. The porphyrin meso phenyl groups were also equipped with phenol groups, which led to the formation of intramolecular H-bonds when the zinc porphyrins were bound to pyridine ligands equipped with ester or amide side arms. Binding of the pyridine ligands with the conformationally locked chloroporphyrins was compared with the corresponding unsubstituted porphyrins, which are more flexible. The association constants of 150 zinc porphyrin-pyridine complexes were measured in two different solvents, toluene and 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane (TCE). These association constants were then used to construct 120 chemical double mutant cycles to quantify the influence of chlorine substitution on the free energy of intramolecular H-bonds formed between the phenol side arms of the porphyrins and the ester or amide side arms of the pyridine ligands. Conformational restriction leads to increases in the stability of some complexes and decreases in the stability of others with variations in the free energy contribution due to intramolecular H-bonding of -5 to +6 kJ mol(-1).

The flexibility-complementarity dichotomy in receptor-ligand interactions

Synthetic supramolecular complexes provide an opportunity for quantitative systematic exploration of the relationship between chemical structure and molecular recognition phenomena. A family of closely related zinc porphyrin-pyridine complexes was used to examine the interplay of conformational flexibility and geometric complementarity in determining the selectivity of molecular recognition events. The association constants of 48 zinc porphyrin-pyridine complexes were measured in two different solvents, toluene and 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane (TCE). These association constants were used to construct 32 chemical double mutant cycles to dissect the free energy contributions of intramolecular H-bonds between the phenol side arms of the porphyrins and the ester or amide side arms of the pyridine ligands. Effective molarities (EM) for the intramolecular interactions were determined by comparison with the corresponding intermolecular H-bonding interactions. The values of EM do not depend on the solvent and are practically identical for amide and ester H-bond acceptors located at the same site on the ligand framework. However, there are variations of an order of magnitude in EM depending on the flexibility of the linker used to connect the H-bond acceptors to the pyridine ligands. Rigid aromatic linkers give values of EM that are an order of magnitude higher than the values of EM for the corresponding ester linkers, which have one additional torsional degree of freedom. However, the most flexible ether linkers give values of EM that are also higher than the values of EM for the corresponding ester linkers, which have one less torsional degree of freedom. Although the penalty for conformational restriction on binding is higher for the more flexible ether linkers, this flexibility allows optimization of the geometric complementarity of the ligand for the receptor, so there is a trade off between preorganization and fit.

Influence of non-covalent preorganization on supramolecular effective molarities

Formation of H-bonding interactions, which restrict the conformational mobility of a flexible linker, have no effect on chelate cooperativity in a family of porphyrin-pyridine complexes.

Relationship between chemical structure and supramolecular effective molarity for formation of intramolecular H-bonds

Effective molarity (EM) is a key parameter that determines the efficiency of a range of supramolecular phenomena from the folding of macromolecules to multivalent ligand binding. Coordination complexes formed between zinc porphyrins equipped H-bond donor sites and pyridine ligands equipped with H-bond acceptor sites have allowed systematic quantification of EM values for the formation of intramolecular H-bonds in 240 different systems. The results provide insights into the relationship of EM to supramolecular architecture, H-bond strength, and solvent. Previous studies on ligands equipped with phosphonate diester and ether H-bond acceptors were inconclusive, but the experiments described here on ligands equipped with phosphine oxide, amide, and ester H-bond acceptors resolve these ambiguities. Chemical double-mutant cycles were used to dissect the thermodynamic contributions of individual H-bond interactions to the overall stabilities of the complexes and hence determine the values of EM, which fall in the range 1-1000 mM. Solvent has little effect on EM, and the values measured in toluene and 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane are similar. For H-bond acceptors that have similar geometries but different H-bond strengths (amide and ester), the values of EM are very similar. For H-bond acceptors that have different geometries but similar H-bond strengths (amide and phosphonate diester), there is little correlation between the values of EM. These results imply that supramolecular EMs are independent of solvent and intrinsic H-bond strength but depend on supramolecular architecture and geometric complementarity.

Quantification of the effect of conformational restriction on supramolecular effective molarities

The association constants for a family of 96 closely related zinc porphyrin-pyridine ligand complexes have been measured in two different solvents, toluene and 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane (TCE). The zinc porphyrin receptors are equipped with phenol side arms, which can form intramolecular H-bonds with ester or amide side arms on the pyridine ligands. These association constants were used to construct 64 chemical double mutant cycles, which measure the free energy contributions of intramolecular H-bonding interactions to the overall stability of the complexes. Measurement of association constants for the corresponding intermolecular H-bonding interactions allowed determination of the effective molarities (EM) for the intramolecular interactions. Comparison of ligands that feature amide H-bond acceptors and ester H-bonds at identical sites on the ligand framework show that the values of EM are practically identical. Similarly, the values of EM are practically identical in toluene and in TCE. However, comparison of two ligand series that differ by one degree of torsional freedom shows that the values of EM for the flexible ligands are an order of magnitude lower than for the corresponding rigid ligands. This observation holds for a range of different supramolecular architectures with different degrees of receptor-ligand complementarity and suggests that in general the cost of freezing a rotor in supramolecular complexes is of the order of 5 kJ/mol.