Early Development of Host-Guest Chemistry. Pedersens Works on Crown Ethers

1 Early Development of Host-Guest Chemistry. Pedersen s Works on Crown Ethers 

It should be stressed that there is not alwaysjustice in reseach evaluation. The selective formation of inclusion complexes by cyclodextrins (such as 11) was established by Cramer [6] at least 15 years earlier than that by crown ethers. However, cyclodextrin studies forming an independent branch of host-guest chemistry seem underestimated in spite of their considerably greater practical importance at present than that of other host macrocycles (crown ethers 17, calixarenes 18, etc.). Sometimes they are even totally neglected by discussing inclusion phenomena [7]. 

Let us compare the methods applied by Pedersen for establishing the complex formation with a modern approach. Today tedious solubility studies are carried out almost exclusively with practical applications in mind, but they are not performed to prove the complex formation. For instance, one ofthe main reasons for the use of cyclodextrin complexes in the pharmaceutical industry is their solubilizing effect on drugs [8]. There, and almost only there, solubility studies are a must. As concerns spectroscopic methods, at present the NMR technique is one ofthe main tools enabling one to prove the formation of inclusion complex, carry out structural studies (for instance, making use of the NOE effect [9a]), determine the complex stability [9b, c] and mobility of its constituent parts [9d]. However, at the time when Pedersen performed his work, the NMR method was in the early stage of development, and thus inaccurate, and its results proved inconclusive. UV spectra retained their significance in supramolecular chemistry, whilst at present the IR method is used to prove the complex formation only in very special cases. 

Applying the above criteria to almost 50 crown ethers Pedersen was able to formulate conditions influencing the stability ofthe complexes he studied. The following were considered important  

The size of the ion must be smaller than that of the hole in the polyether ring. Thus, a stable complex was not formed if the ion was too large to fit into the polyether ring. 

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