Lehn cryptand

Until very recently, studies of the use of luminescent lanthanide complexes as biological probes concentrated on the use of terbium and europium complexes. These have emission lines in the visible region of the spectrum, and have long-lived (millisecond timescale) metal-centered emission. The first examples to be studied in detail were complexes of the Lehn cryptand (complexes (20) and (26) in Figure 7),48,50,88 whose luminescence properties have also been applied to bioassay (vide infra). In this case, the europium and terbium ions both have two water molecules... 

The bipyridyl chromophore has been extensively used in lanthanide coordination chemistry. In addition to those based on the Lehn cryptand (see Section IV.B.4), a number of acyclic ligands have also employed this group. One such ligand is L17, which binds to lanthanide ions such that one face of the ligand is left open (Scheme 3) (60). As expected, luminescence is extremely weak in water and methanol, but stronger in acetonitrile ( = 0.30, 0.14 for europium and terbium, respectively). In addition, the nature of the counter ion can... 

The first cage lanthanide complexes studied for their photophysics were the simple 2.2.1 cryptands. The lack of a strongly absorbing chromophore, and easy approach of solvent molecules meant that their luminescence properties were disappointing in comparison to many recently studied complexes. The Lehn cryptand (L53) (Scheme 6... 

Faulkner, S., Beeby, A., Carrie, M.-C., et al. (2001) Time-resolved near-lR Itrminescence from ytterbirrm and neodymium complexes of the Lehn cryptand. Inorganic Chemical Communications, 4, 187. 

The bipyridyl chromophore has been extensively used in lanthanide coordination chemistry. In addition to those based on the Lehn cryptand (see Section IV.B.4), a number of acyclic ligands have also employed this group. One such ligand is which binds to... 

A number of bridged crown ethers have been prepared. Although the Simmons-Park in-out bicyclic amines (see Sect. 1.3.3) are the prototype, Lehn s cryptands (see Chap. 8) are probably better known. Intermediates between the cryptands (which Pedersen referred to as lanterns ) and the simple monoazacrowns are monoazacrowns bridged by a single hydrocarbon strand. Pedersen reports the synthesis of such a structure (see 7, below) which he referred to as a clam compound for the obvious reason . Although Pedersen appears not to have explored the binding properties of his clam in any detail, he did attempt to complex Na and Cs ions. A 0.0001 molar solution of the clam compound is prepared in ethanol. The metal ions Na and Cs are added to the clam-ethanol solutions as salts. Ultraviolet spectra of these solutions indicate that a small amount of the Na is complexed by the clam compound but none of the Cs . 

Although Lehn and his coworkers prepared a large number of cryptands and derived complexes over the years, the synthetic approach to these compounds remained essentially similar for most of them. Details are presented for a number of such compounds in ref. 26. The essential features of these syntheses were use of amide-forming reactions in the absence of templating ions with reliance on a high dilution step to form the second ring. An alternative approach for the synthesis of cryptands was developed by Dye and his coworkers. Their approach involved the use of a flow synthesis to replace the high dilution step. 

Shortly after their first report of all-oxygen bridged cryptands, Dietrich, Lehn and Sauvage reported incorporation of sulfur in the strands. The experimental methods used were essentially similar to those applied in the syntheses of the parent cryptands. As in previous cases, a diacyl chloride was condensed with a diamine under high dilution conditions. In this case, however, the diamine contained sulfur atoms rather than oxygen. The synthesis of compound 5 was accomplished in two stages as illustrated below in Eq. (8.3). The first cyclization step affords the macrocyclic amine in 55% yield. The macrobicyclic product (5) is formed in 25% yield from the monocyclic diamine and the acid chloride. 

Synthesis of cryptands which contain nitrogen atoms in the bridges has also attracted Lehn s attention. In general, a similar synthetic strategy was utilized, but ni-... 

Although the cryptands are powerful cation complexing agents, there has been a need felt for increasing the lipophilicity of these materials. In particular, Montanari and his coworkers have utilized the lipophilic cryptands in phase transfer catalytic proces-sesi5,40 Lehn and his group. In all of this work, the principal structural varia-... 

Lehn and his coworkers have prepared a number of chiral cryptands based upon the 2,2 -binaphthyl unit " . In a typical preparation, the binaphthyl units are treated with bromoacetic acid to form the phenoxyacetic acid derivatives which are then converted into the corresponding diacyl chlorides (75). Reaction of 15 with l,10-diaza-18-... 

The spherand prepared by Cram and coworkers was designed to have a relatively small molecular cavity and appeared to prefer complexation with Li and Na over larger cations like K", Rb, etc. Tlie spheroidal cryptand prepared by Lehn ° involved strategy employed previously but the spherand 24 was prepared by quite a different approach. 

In other studies, Lehn and coworkers have produced a range of mixed-donor cryptands using direct synthetic techniques (usually at high... 

Besides (166), other binucleating cryptands have been synthesized (Lehn, 1980). The availability of systems such as these once again provides a means for fixing a pair of metal ions in close proximity in a well-defined environment. Such species are ideal for the types of studies involving binuclear systems outlined in Section 3.4. 

A typical synthesis. The preparation of (213 m, n = 1) serves to illustrate the general synthetic strategy used to obtain this class of polyether cage. Starting from diaza-18-crown-6 and the required diacid chloride, condensation followed by reduction yields the corresponding cryptand, 2.2.2 (Dietrich, Lehn Sauvage, 1970 Dietrich, Lehn, Sauvage Blanzat, 1973)-see [4.8],... 

Protonation of cryptands. Novel protonation behaviour has been observed for these (diaza) cryptands (Cheney Lehn, 1972 Kresge, 1975). Internal protonation of ligands such as 1.1.1 and 2.1.1 leads to species exhibiting very slow proton exchange rates. In contrast, for simple systems, proton exchange rates are invariably very fast. For 1.1.1, the... 

The stability of cryptate complexes. The cage topology of the cryptands results in them yielding complexes with considerably enhanced stabilities relative to the corresponding crown species. Thus the K+ complex of 2.2.2 is 105 times more stable than the complex of the corresponding diaza-crown derivative - such enhancement has been designated by Lehn to reflect the operation of the cryptate effect this effect may be considered to be a special case of the macrocyclic effect mentioned previously. 

Table 6.2. Thermodynamic data for complexation of alkali metal ions by cryptands in water (Lehn Sauvage, 1975 Kauffmann, Lehn Sauvage, 1976).

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