Implementation of a Hamiliton-receptor-based hydrogen-bonding motif toward a new electron donor-acceptor prototype: electron versus energy transfer.

A new modular concept for the self-assembly of electron donor-acceptor complexes is presented that ensures (i) fine-tuning the strength of the complexation, (ii) controlling the electronic coupling to impact electron and energy transfer processes, and (iii) high solubility of the corresponding hybrid architectures. This task has been realized through developing a series of porphyrin-fullerene donor-acceptor systems held together by a Hamilton-receptor-based hydrogen-bonding motif. In this context, novel libraries of C60 monoadducts (1) containing cyanuric acid side chains and of tetraphenylporphyrin derivatives (2) involving the complementary Hamilton-receptor unit were synthesized.

Self-assembly of chiral depsipeptide dendrimers.

The self-assembly of chiral depsipeptide dendrons 4, which contain a cyanuric acid building block at their focal point, with the homotritopic Hamilton receptor 1 is reported. The 1:3 compositions of the resulting chiral supramolecular dendrimers, the association constants K(n), and the cooperativity of binding expressed by Scatchard plots and the Hill coefficients n(H) was determined by NMR titration experiments. The most pronounced positive cooperativity was found for the complexes 1 L(3) with L being the second-generation dendrons 4 c-e.