Chalcogen Bonding in Selective Recognition and Liquid-Liquid Extraction of Perrhenate.

Efficient recognition and extraction of hazardous anionic pollutants from water medium is of great significance for environmental concerns, representing a challenging area of research in supramolecular chemistry. In this study, we present, for the first time, a comprehensive demonstration of the ability of chalcogen bonding (ChB) to recognize and remove the ReO from 100 % water medium. The anion recognition ability is well elucidated through solution phase NMR and ITC studies, which clearly reveal the selective binding of ReO over other oxo-anions.

Supramolecular chemistry of liquid-liquid extraction.

Liquid-Liquid Extraction (LLE) is a venerable and widely used method for the separation of a targeted solute between two immiscible liquids. In recent years, this method has gained popularity in the supramolecular chemistry community due to the development of various types of synthetic receptors that effectively and selectively bind specific guests in an aqueous medium through different supramolecular interactions. This has eventually led to the development of state-of-the-art extraction technologies for the removal and purification of anions, cations, ion pairs, and small molecules from one liquid phase to another liquid phase, which is an industrially viable method.