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.