Work

Expedient Decagram-Scale Synthesis of Robust Organic Cages That Bind Sulfate Strongly and Selectively in Water

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Selective anion recognition remains a key challenge in supramolecular chemistry: only a very small number of systems that can function in water are known, and these nearly always preferentially bind hydrophobic anions. In this work, we report three robust hexa-cationic cages that can be prepared on scales up to 14 g in two simple and high-yielding steps from commercially-available materials. One of these cages displays unusually strong sulfate binding in water (Ka = 12,000 M–1), and demonstrates high selectivity for this anion over H2PO4–/HPO42– in DMSO/buffer mixtures. These results demonstrate that relatively large, three-dimensional supramolecular hosts can be prepared in high yields and on large scales, and can be highly potent receptors.

Source: Journal of the American Chemical Society

DOI: 10.1021/jacs.4c09930

Authors: Émer M. Foyle, Rosemary J. Goodwin, Cameron J. T. Cox, Bailee R. Smith, Annie L. Colebatch, Nicholas G. White

Institutions: Australian National University, University of Edinburgh

Language: English

Topic: Supramolecular Chemistry and Complexes

Subfield: Organic Chemistry

Field: Chemistry

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: Australian Research Council

Award: Self-assembled supramolecular cages for guest binding and catalysis