Syntheses of chiral homoazacalix[4]arenes incorporating amino acid residues: molecular recognition for racemic quaternary ammonium ions

Chirality sensing of choline derivatives by a triple anion helicate cage through induced circular dichroism

A racemic A₂L₃ triple anion helicate cage is able to sense chiral choline derivatives by induced circular dichroism.

Molecular recognition of organic ammonium ions in solution using synthetic receptors

Ammonium ions are ubiquitous in chemistry and molecular biology. Considerable efforts have been undertaken to develop synthetic receptors for their selective molecular recognition. The type of host compounds for organic ammonium ion binding span a wide range from crown ethers to calixarenes to metal complexes. Typical intermolecular interactions are hydrogen bonds, electrostatic and cation-π interactions, hydrophobic interactions or reversible covalent bond formation. In this review we discuss the different classes of synthetic receptors for organic ammonium ion recognition and illustrate the scope and limitations of each class with selected examples from the recent literature. The molecular recognition of ammonium ions in amino acids is included and the enantioselective binding of chiral ammonium ions by synthetic receptors is also covered. In our conclusion we compare the strengths and weaknesses of the different types of ammonium ion receptors which may help to select the best approach for specific applications.

'Non-covalent synthesis' of a chiral host of calix[6]arene and enantiomeric discrimination

'Non-covalent synthesis' of novel chiral hosts (calix[6]arene-chiral amine complexes) and its application to enantiomeric discrimination was investigated by (1)H NMR spectroscopy. The topology of a ternary complex was proposed for the calix[6]arene-amine-sulfoxide to rationalize the chiral recognition.

Supramolecular Assemblies and Molecular Recognition of Amphiphilic Schiff Bases with Barbituric Acid in Organized Molecular Films

A bolaform Schiff base, N,N'-bis(salicylidene)-1,10-decanediamine (BSC10), has been synthesized and its interfacial hydrogen bond formation or molecular recognition with barbituric acid was investigated in comparison with that of a single chain Schiff base, 2-hydroxybenzaldehyde-octadecylamine (HBOA). It has been found that while HBOA formed a monolayer at the air/water interface, the bolaform Schiff base formed a multilayer film with ordered layer structure on water surface. When the Schiff bases were spread on the subphase containing barbituric acid, both of the Schiff bases could form hydrogen bonds with barbituric acid in situ in the spreading films. As a result, an increase of the molecular areas in the isotherms was observed. The in situ H-bonded films could be transferred onto solid substrates, and the transferred multilayer films were characterized by various methods such as UV-vis and FT-IR spectrosopies. Spectral changes were observed for the films deposited from the barbituric acid subphase, which supported the hydrogen bond formation between the Schiff bases and barbituric acid. By measuring the MS-TOF of the deposited films dissolved in CHCl3 solution, it was concluded that a 2:1 complex of HBOA with barbituric acid and a 1:2 complex of BSC10 with barbituric acid were formed. On the other hand, when the multilayer films of both Schiff bases were immersed in an aqueous solution of barbituric acid, a similar molecular recognition through the hydrogen bond occurred. A clear conformational change of the alkyl spacer in the bolaform Schiff base was observed during the complex formation with the barbituric acid.

Novel Chiral “Calixsalen” Macrocycle and Chiral Robson-type Macrocyclic Complexes

A family of novel chiral "calixsalen" Schiff base macrocycles R,R-H(3)L4, R,R-H(3)L5, containing three chiral diamino moieties were synthesized by an efficient self-assembly and characterized by (1)H and (13)C NMR, mass spectrometry, and X-ray diffraction. The systematic synthesis, structure, and coordination properties of the [2 + 2] and [3 + 3] Robson-type Schiff base macrocyclic mono-, di-, tri-, and tetranuclear metal complexes were explored.

Exceptional Chiral Recognition of Racemic Carboxylic Acids by Calix[4]arenes Bearing Optically Pure α,β-Amino Alcohol Groups

Calixarenes bearing optically pure alpha,beta-amino alcohol groups at their lower rim exhibit exceptional and efficient chiral recognition ability in discrimination of racemic mandelic acid, 2,3-dibenzoyltartaric acid and 2-hydroxy-3-methylbutyric acid. [structure: see text]