Donor-acceptor complexes with crown ethers

The binding and recognition of neutral molecules make use of electrostatic, donor-acceptor and especially of hydrogen bonding interactions [2.119-2.123]. Polar organic molecules such as malonodinitrile form weak complexes with crown ethers and related ligands [2.120]. 

Tetracyanoquinodimethane (1) and tetracyanoethylene (3) are able to form CT complexes with crown ethers which are electron-donor molecules25. A recent study has recorded the spectral properties and stability constants of 89 tetracyanoethylene CT complexes with donors26. The main interaction in these complexes is an electron transfer (ji -> it ) between the HOMO of the donor and the LUMO of the acceptor. 

Fig. 16A-D. Mechanical switching in rotaxanes. A Rotaxanes may exist in isomeric states by the movement of the ring component between dissymmetric sites on the string component. B A redox- or pH-switchable [2]rotaxane. While the cyclophane complexes the native benzidine site (spectrum, curve a), the reduced or protonated benzidine repels the cyclophane, causing it to move to the dioxybiphenylene site (spectrum, curve b). C An azobenzene-based switchable [2]rotaxane. The cyclodextrin ring complexes the azobenzene site in the trans-state, but it is repelled from the ds-azobenzene. The state of the system is measurable by circular dichroism (plot). D A pH-switchable rotaxane. When the amine on the string component is protonated, it complexes the crown ether ring by hydrogen-bonding interactions (40a). When the amine is deprotonated, however, the ring component moves to the bipyridinium unit, where it is complexed by n donor-acceptor interactions (40b). The plots in B and C are adapted from [67] and [69], respectively, with permission...

Polyoxometalates also play an important role in the selection of a metal ion for its complete encapsulation in the cavity of a crown ether to form an unusual supramolecular cation structure. For example, the crown ethers (macrocyclic polyethers), generally, do not readily form complexes with first-row transition metals in their low oxidation states because such metal ions provide only soft coordination (acceptor) sites and crown ethers have hard donor atoms. Naturally, only a few first-row transition metal rown ether complexes had been structurally characterized in which a direct bond formation between a transition metal and the crown ether oxygen atoms became possible rare examples of this kind are offered by the smaller ring crown ethers (e.g., 15-crown-5 and... 

Zollinger and coworkers (Nakazumi et al., 1983) therefore supposed that the diazonium ion and the crown ether are in a rapid equilibrium with two complexes as in Scheme 11-2. One of these is the charge-transfer complex (CT), whose stability is based on the interaction between the acceptor (ArNj) and donor components (Crown). The acceptor center of the diazonium ion is either the (3-nitrogen atom or the combined 7r-electron system of the aryl part and the diazonio group, while the donor centers are one or more of the ether oxygen atoms. The other partner in the equilibrium is the insertion complex (IC), as shown in structure 11.5. Scheme 11-2 is intended to leave the question open as to whether the CT and IC complexes are formed competitively or consecutively from the components. ... 

Reaction of 175 with Cgg yields a hydroxy-functionalized fullerene that can be further derivatized. This hydroxy-fullerene was coupled with a porphyrine unit via a polyethyleneglycol-Hnker. This linker can be arranged similarly to a crown-ether to complex metal cations. Complexation is used to tune the distance between the porphyrin imit and the Cgg-moiety and thus tune the donor-acceptor properties of this porphyrin-fuUerene hybrid [177]. 

The conjugation in the molecular wire may be disrupted or modulated to create systems with different properties. For example, a porphyrin Ceo donor-acceptor system linked with a conjugated binaphthyl unit, has a preference for the atropi-somer where the fullerene unit is closer to the porphyrin system, thus increasing the through space interactions [82]. The charge transfer process on a dyad containing a crown ether in the linker structure can be modulated by complexation/ decomplexation of sodium cations [83] but even more interesting is the construction of supramolecular systems where the donor and acceptor moieties are... 

Microcrystalline cellulose triacetate, cyclodextrin- and crown ether-derived CSPs, as well as some chiral synthetic polymers, achieve enantiomer separation primarily by forming host-guest complexes with the analyte in these cases, donor-acceptor interactions are secondary. Solutes resolved on cyclodextrins and other hydrophobic cavity CSPs often have aromatic or polar substituents at a stereocenter, but these CSPs may also separate compounds that have chiral axes. Chiral crown ether CSPs resolve protonated primary amines. 

Another wide family of purely organic interlocked systems has been developed by Stoddart s group, based on hydrogen bonding and on donor-acceptor interactions. Suitably sized crown ethers can form pseudorotaxane complexes with appropriate secondary dialkylammonium ions which rely on N —H - 0 and C—H - 0 hydrogen bonds for stabiUzation. Similarly, a r-electron rich component, in interaction with a r-electron deficient moiety (traditionally cyclobis(paraquat-p-phenylene), CBPQ T, 21, ... 

Moreover, supra-molecular systems involving crown ethers, fullerene and k-extended systems have been achieved that can mimic the photosynthetic process [9-14]. The fullerene Qo has been used successfully as an electron acceptor in the construction of model photosynthetic systems [9], the r-extended systems, such as porphyrins [12], phthalocyanines [13], r-extended tetrathiafulvalene (w -exTTF) derivatives [9,10], which are utilized as electron donors, while the crown ethers act as a bridge between the electron donor and acceptor. In the absorption spectrum of the complexes, the absorption maxima are associated experimentally and theoretically with the formation of charge-transfer states [14-16]. Consequently, these supramolecular systems have potential for applications in photonic, photocatalytic, and molecular optoelectronic gates and devices [9-14]. As a result, the study of the conformations and the complexation behavior of crown ethers and their derivatives are motivated both by scientific curiosity regarding the specificity of their binding and by potential technological applications. 

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