Crown ethers, chiral recognition with

Chiral Recognition by Crown Ethers Chiral recognition is one of the most important topics in host-guest chemistry. Crown ethers with axis chirality result in chiral guest molecules. 

Early examples of enantioselective extractions are the resolution of a-aminoalco-hol salts, such as norephedrine, with lipophilic anions (hexafluorophosphate ion) [184-186] by partition between aqueous and lipophilic phases containing esters of tartaric acid [184-188]. Alkyl derivatives of proline and hydroxyproline with cupric ions showed chiral discrimination abilities for the resolution of neutral amino acid enantiomers in n-butanol/water systems [121, 178, 189-192]. On the other hand, chiral crown ethers are classical selectors utilized for enantioseparations, due to their interesting recognition abilities [171, 178]. However, the large number of steps often required for their synthesis [182] and, consequently, their cost as well as their limited loadability makes them not very suitable for preparative purposes. Examples of ligand-exchange [193] or anion-exchange selectors [183] able to discriminate amino acid derivatives have also been described. 

Chiral Recognition. The use of chiral hosts to form diastereomeric inclusion compounds was mentioned above. But in some cases it is possible for a host to form an inclusion compound with one enantiomer of a racemic guest, but not the other. This is caUed chiral recognition. One enantiomer fits into the chiral host cavity, the other does not. More often, both diastereomers are formed, but one forms more rapidly than the other, so that if the guest is removed it is already partially resolved (this is a form of kinetic resolution, see category 6). An example is use of the chiral crown ether (53) partially to resolve the racemic amine salt (54). " When an aqueous solution of 54 was... 

Kuhn, R., Emi, F., Bereuter, T., and Hausler, J., Chiral recognition and enantiomeric resolution based on host-guest complexation with crown ethers in capillary zone electrophoresis, Anal. Chem., 64, 2815, 1992. 

The recognition of barium containing crown ether bridged chiral Schiff base zinc complex [44] with the rigid bidendate guest 1,4-diazobicyclo-[2,2,2]octane (DABCO) was studied by aH NMR titration.107... 

Chiral recognition by crown ethers with asymmetric carbon atoms 406... 

Chiral recognition experiments with dinaphthyl-crown ethers have been carried out in two different ways (Helgeson et al., 1973b Timko et al., 1978) ... 

The influence of the counterion on the stability of crown-ether complexes in general was reviewed in detail in one of the preceding sections. There it was shown to be an important parameter. The nature of the counterion in diastereomeric complexes of chiral crown ethers with primary ammonium salts also influences the chiral recognition. First of all it greatly determines whether salt can be extracted into the organic phase where the chiral discrimination takes place. In a series of experiments (Kyba et al., 1978) it was shown that when S,S -6zs(dinaphthyl)-22-crown-6 [284] in chloroform was equilibrated with racemic er-phenylethylammonium salts the type of anion also influences the degree of enantiomeric differentiation (Table 70). The highest... 

With amino-acid salts the effect of the medium is considerably larger. Peacock and Cram (1976) reported that the degree of chiral recognition of DL-phenylglycine perchlorate by crown ether [285] depends on the ratio of acetonitrile and chloroform. The observed EDC values vary from 6 to 52, which corresponds to a difference in free energy of —1.15 kcal mol-1 (Table 72). The optimum is very sharply defined (23.1% of acetonitrile) and is... 

CHIRAL RECOGNITION BY CROWN ETHERS WITH ASYMMETRIC CARBON ATOMS... 

A different concept of chiral recognition was used by Lehn et al. (1978) for the differentiation between pairs of enantiomeric anions. Following the terminology used for metallo-enzymes, the chiral crown ether [309] acts as an apo-receptor, complexing a metal cation and thus becoming a chiral metal receptor that may discriminate between enantiomeric anions (cascade-type complexation). Extraction experiments with racemic mandelic acid dissolved in... 

With the larger racemic cr-hydroxy-l-naphthaleneacetic acid too, extraction takes place in the presence of 1309] and the appropriate cations but enantiomeric differentiation is not observed. These results were confirmed in transport experiments in which the alkali mandelate is carried through a liquid membrane of [309] dissolved in chloroform. Lehn et al. (1978) explain these observations in terms of an ion pair included in the cavity of the crown ether. The reversal of chiral recognitions between potassium and cesium mandelate of 25% indicates that the structures of the two complexes are different. 

With regard to the chiral recognition by crown ethers D. J. Cram kindly informed us that the EDC value of 38 (footnote b, Table 67) proved to be in error, and that the reported RR-S configuration in Table 68, footnote d and page 403, is still uncertain. Recent work (Peacock et al., 1980) has shown that the chiral recognition of amino acids (page 397 and Table 69) is comparable to that of amino-acid esters. The peculiar optimum in EDC values as a function of acetonitrile concentration (page 401 and Table 72) could not be duplicated. 

In principle, mass spectrometry is not suitable to differentiate enantiomers. However, mass spectrometry is able to distinguish between diastereomers and has been applied to stereochemical problems in different areas of chemistry. In the field of chiral cluster chemistry, mass spectrometry, sometimes in combination with chiral chromatography, has been extensively applied to studies of proton- and metal-bound clusters, self-recognition processes, cyclodextrin and crown ethers inclusion complexes, carbohydrate complexes, and others. Several excellent reviews on this topic are nowadays available. A survey of the most relevant examples will be given in this section. Most of the studies was based on ion abundance analysis, often coupled with MIKE and CID ion fragmentation on MS " and FT-ICR mass spectrometric instruments, using Cl, MALDI, FAB, and ESI, and atmospheric pressure ionization (API) methods. 

Cram and co-workers have experimented extensively with chiral recognition in crown ethers derived from various 3-binaphthols (73). In nonpolar solvents, these chiral ethers complex salts of PEA and various chiral a-amino esters (with fast exchange), inducing nonequivalence in their NMR spectra. The senses of proton nonequivalence induced in these solutes have been used to support proposed structures of the diastereomeric solvates (74). 

Different classifications for the chiral CSPs have been described. They are based on the chemical structure of the chiral selectors and on the chiral recognition mechanism involved. In this chapter we will use a classification based mainly on the chemical structure of the selectors. The selectors are classified in three groups (i) CSPs with low-molecular-weight selectors, such as Pirkle type CSPs, ionic and ligand exchange CSPs, (ii) CSPs with macrocyclic selectors, such as CDs, crown-ethers and macrocyclic antibiotics, and (iii) CSPs with macromolecular selectors, such as polysaccharides, synthetic polymers, molecular imprinted polymers and proteins. These different types of CSPs, frequently used for the analysis of chiral pharmaceuticals, are discussed in more detail later. 

Chiral crown ethers have been employed extensively (48-53, 56-60, 86, 90, 93-95, 107, no, 116, 117, 128, 143, 144, 152-155, 158-161, 163, 164, 212-227) for enantiomeric recognition of racemic primary alkyl ammonium cations including those associated with amino acid ester salts. Resolutions have been effected employing both bulk and chromatographic procedures. 

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