Anion-host complexes

Synthesis of unsubstituted mercuracarborands, as illustrated in Scheme 1, is a two-step process involving deprotonation of the acidic CH vertices of 1,2-carborane 7 followed by treatment with the appropriate mercury salt <1994JA7142, 1997ACR267>. Thus, -butyllithium efficiently deprotonates 1,2-carborane 7 giving doso-X.Z-VXz-1,2-C2BioHio 8, the pivotal intermediate. If treated with mercury acetate, neutral trimer 5 is formed. Using mercury chloride or bromide, however, leads to the formation of tetramer 9 and 10, respectively, as 1 1 anion-host complexes. 

The M4L6 anionic host complex 4 by Raymond et al. efficiently traps and stabilizes reactive gnests, such as a tropylium cation, " phosphine-acetone adducts, iminium... 

Such complexes form a precursor to a full discussion of the vast and highly topical field of self-assembly (Chapter 10). We consider them here since they resemble structurally the types of compounds discussed in Section 4.7, but unlike metal-based anion receptors the simple thermodynamic equilibrium between host, anion and complex is not the only process occurring in solution. In fact multiple equilibria are occurring covering all possible combinations of interaction between anions, cations and ligands. These systems have the appeal that the formation of particular metal coordination complexes are thus subject to thermodynamic anion templating (cf. the thermodynamic template effect in macrocycle synthesis, Section 3.9.1) and vice versa. 

In analogous fashion, the ruthenium- or iridium-based bimetallic and trimetallic CTV complexes such as 54-57 also make excellent anion hosts. The CTV cavity, however, is wider and more shallow and hence, the BF anion is too small to be effectively bound. This is evidenced by the crystal structures of the BF J salts of 56 and the iridium analogue 57 in which the anion within the cavity is either extremely disordered or is situated to one side of the cavity. We have found that host 54 exhibits a pronounced selectivity for TcO in nonaqueous solutions, presumably as a consequence of the wide cavity in conjunction with the larger anion size.104,109 Indeed, the X-ray crystal structure of the mixed ReO CFjSOj salt shows the... 

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