Benzo- 15-crown alkali metal complexes

Crown ethers may also be used to functionalize salicylideneimine complexes.1179 The crown ether-functionalized tetra-t-butyl-salicylideneimines are useful in studies on the selective com-plexation and transport of cations (e.g., Na+ and K+). 4,5-Bis(3,5-di-/-butylsalicylideneimino) benzo-18-crown-6 coordinates Ni11 via the Schiff base N202 donor system and K+ or Cs+ at the crown site.1180 These Ni-alkali metal complexes are able to transport amino acids from acidic aqueous solution to pure water. 

Figure 4.11 Molecular structures of typical crown-ether complexes with alkali metal cations (a) sodium-water-benzo-I5-crown-5 showing pentagonal-pyramidal coordination of Na by 6 oxygen atoms (b) 18-crown-6-potassium-ethyl acetoacetate enolate showing unsymmelrical coordination of K by 8 oxygen atoms and (c) the RbNCS ion pair coordinated by dibenzo-I8-crown-6 to give seven-fold coordination about Rb.

Oxygen chelates such as those of edta and polyphosphates are of importance in analytical chemistry and in removing Ca ions from hard water. There is no unique. sequence of stabilities since these depend sensitively on a variety of factors where geometrical considerations are not important the smaller ions tend to form the stronger complexes but in polydentate macrocycles steric factors can be crucial. Thus dicyclohexyl-18-crown-6 (p. 96) forms much stronger complexes with Sr and Ba than with Ca (or the alkali metals) as shown in Fig. 5.6. Structural data are also available and an example of a solvated 8-coordinate Ca complex [(benzo-l5-crown-5)-Ca(NCS)2-MeOH] is shown in Fig. 5.7. The coordination polyhedron is not regular Ca lies above the mean plane of the 5 ether oxygens... 

For this puq)ose, the photoswitchable bis(crown ether)s 88 and 89 as well as the reference compound 90 have been synthesized. Compounds 88 and 89 are highly lipophilic derivatives of azobis(benzo-15-crown-5). The parent azobis crown ether was originally developed by Shinkai and its photoresponsive changes in complexation, extraction, and transport properties thoroughly examined. Compared to 87, more distinct structural difference between the cis and trans isomers can be expected for 88 and 89 because in the latter compounds the 15-crown-5 rings are directly attached to the azobenzene group. The photoequilibrium concentrations of the cis and trans forms and the photoinduced changes in the complexation constants for alkali metal ions are summarized in Table 7. 

Different types of benzo-15-crown-5 alkali and alkaline earth metal complexes (reproduced with permission... 

The introduction at the C- or N-terminal position of a crown ether unit has been used as a strategy to control the aggregation of poly(benzyl glutamate) derivatives 19 The incorporation of the crown unit at the C-terminal position is performed using (benzo-15-crown-5)-4-amine as initiator of the polymerization of l-G1u(OBz1)-NCA. Physical properties of such crown derivatives can be modulated by the formation of sandwich 2 1 complexes driven by the addition of specific alkali metal ions. In the reported case, the formation of K+ sandwich complex between two C-terminal benzo-15-crown-5 modified helical polypeptides induced aggregation. In a similar approach,f20 addition of Cs+ to 18-crown-6 terminated helical peptides results in the formation of supramolecular assemblies having membrane ion conductivity activities. 

In 1967, DuPont chemist Charles J. Pedersen (21) discovered a class of ligands capable of complexing alkah metal cations, a discovery which led to the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1987. These compounds, known as crown ethers or cryptands, allow gready enhanced solubiHty of sodium and other alkali metals in amines and ethers. About 50 crown ethers having between 9—60 membered ohgoether rings were described (22). Two such structures, dibenzo-18-crown-6 (1) and benzo-9-crown-3 (2), are shown. 

Alkali metal picrates have been used to measure formation constants for crown ethers in solution, but the selectivity of benzo crown ethers for metal picrates, relative to the analogous chlorides, nitrates, perchlorates, and thiocyanates, may vary significantly. Apparently, it—it interactions between the picrate ions and the aromatic ring(s) on the crown are responsible for the difference. The importance of the picrate effect rises as the number of benzo groups in the crown ether is increased, and it varies with their location in the macrocycle. The dependence of the picrate NMR chemical shift on the metal cation and/or macrocycle identity has been used to study picrate-crown ether 7r-stacking in large crown ether (18, 21, and 24-membered) complexes. 

In contrast to conventional cation exchangers, a reversed elution order is observed with crown ether phases, which is mainly determined by the size ratio between crown ether ring and alkali metal ion. Due to the high affinity of poly(benzo-15-crown-5) toward potassium and rubidium ions, these are more strongly retained than lithium, sodium, and cesium ions, respectively. However, the complexing properties of crown ethers also depend on the counter ion being employed. Thus, in potassium salts, for example, an increase in retention in the order KC1 < KBr < KI is observed with an increasing size of the counter ion. 

Vhc and Vhn couplings have been applied by Grothjahn et al in order to obtain structural information on the bis(benzo crown ether)s and their complexes with alkali metal cations. 

Fig. 7.10 Plots of positions of symmetric (high wavenumber) and antisymmetric (low wavenumber) vibrational modes of tricarbonylchromium complexes of benzo-18-crown-6 (a) and benzo-15-crown-5 (b) at different concentrations of alkali metal ions.

A number of reports [10, 17, 22, 25-27] suggest that, in the case of condensation between aromatic diols and polyethylene glycols, the nature of the template exerts an influence on the rate of macrocyclisation. The templates form various series depending on the size of the synthesised crown ether, but lithium ion is an inhibitor in all cases. This must be attributed to the fact that Li+ forms the most stable ion pair with phenolate and simultaneously gives the least stable complexes with benzo crown ethers. It should be noted that alkaline earth metal ions, even in small concentrations, promote these reaction more effectively than alkali metal ions. In addition, it has been emphasised [12] that there is a definite correlation between the basicity of the substance used in the template synthesis of macrocyclic polyethers and the yield of final product. 

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