Tuning the chiral cavity of macrocyclic receptor for chiral recognition and discrimination.

The size and shape of the chiral cavity of a macrocyclic receptor were tuned by the alteration of the binaphthyl moiety to improve the chiral recognition/discrimination ability. For example, host 3 with the 3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl group at the 3,3'-positions showed improved enantioselectivity for small molecules such as 2-chloropropionic acid and methyl lactate as evaluated by the binding constants. This host 3 also had an excellent ability as an NMR chiral solvating agent.

Chiral selector with multiple hydrogen-bonding sites in a macrocyclic cavity.

Chiral macrocycles with the hydrogen bond donor/acceptor sites in the cavity were synthesized and covalently bonded to silica gel to give chiral stationary phases (CSPs), which showed excellent abilities to resolve various chiral compounds, such as benzoin and Co(acac)3, in HPLC. Various organic solvents could be used as the mobile phase to optimize the resolution efficiency of CSPs, and in some cases, even MeCN, MeOH, and CO(2) could be used for the complete resolution of enantiomers.

Biomimetic trifunctional organocatalyst showing a great acceleration for the transesterification between vinyl ester and alcohol.

Trifunctional organocatalysts and mimicking the active site of serine hydrolases showed high catalytic activity with up to a 3,700,000-fold acceleration for the acyl-transfer reactions from vinyl trifluoroacetate to alcohol.

Versatile and practical macrocyclic reagent with multiple hydrogen-bonding sites for chiral discrimination in NMR.

Bifunctional macrocycles 1-4 and diamide 5 were designed and synthesized. NMR studies demonstrated that, among them, receptor 1 functions as the best chiral solvating agent (shift reagent), which is effective for a wide range of chiral compounds having a carboxylic acid, oxazolidinone, carbonate, lactone, alcohol, sulfoxide, sulfoximine, sulfinamide, isocyanate, or epoxide functionality. The addition of only 5 mol % (69 microg, 0.

Versatile and practical chiral shift reagent with hydrogen-bond donor/acceptor sites in a macrocyclic cavity.

[structure: see text] Bifunctional macrocycle 1 with C2 symmetry was newly synthesized. NMR studies demonstrated that receptor 1 functions as a chiral shift reagent (solvating agent) that is highly effective for a wide range of chiral compounds having a carboxylic acid, oxazolidinone, lactone, alcohol, sulfoxide, sulfoximine, isocyanate, or epoxide functionality. Binding constants were determined to investigate the binding behavior of 1.