Homo- and heterodivalent crown-ammonium pseudorotaxanes with different spacers connecting the two axle ammonium binding sites have been synthesized and characterized by NMR spectroscopy and ESI mass spectrometry. The homodivalent pseudorotaxanes are investigated with respect to the thermodynamics of divalent binding and to chelate cooperativity. The shortest spacer exhibits a chelate cooperativity much stronger than that of the longer spacers. On the basis of crystal structure, this can be explained by a noninnocent spacer, which contributes to the binding strength in addition to the two binding sites. Already very subtle changes in the spacer length, i.e., the introduction of an additional methylene group, cause substantial changes in the magnitude of cooperative binding as expressed in the large differences in effective molarity. With a similar series of heterodivalent pseudorotaxanes, the spacer effects on the barrier for the intramolecular threading step has been examined with the result that the shortest spacer causes a strained transition structure and thus the second binding event occurs slower than that of the longer spacers. The activation enthalpies and entropies show clear trends. While the longer spacers reduce the enthalpic strain that is present in the transition state for the shortest member of the series, the longer spacers become entropically slightly more unfavorable because of conformational fixation of the spacer chain during the second binding event. These results clearly show the noninnocent spacers to complicate the analysis of multivalent binding. An approximate description which considers the binding sites to be connected just by a flexible chain turns out to be more a rough approximation than a good model. The second conclusion from the results presented here is that multivalency is expressed in both the thermodynamics and the kinetics in different ways. A spacer optimized for strong binding is suboptimal for fast pseudorotaxane formation.

The binding behaviour of differently substituted diamide axle molecules to Hunter/Vögtle tetralactam macrocycles was studied with a combination of NMR titration, isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) experiments and calculations employing density functional theory (DFT), along with dispersion-corrected exchange-correlation functionals. Guests with alkyl or alkenyl chains attached to the diamide carbonyl groups have a significantly higher binding affinity to the macrocycle than guests with benzoyl amides and their substituted analogues. While the binding of the benzoyl and alkenyl substituted axles is enthalpically driven, the alkyl-substituted guest binds mainly because of a positive binding entropy. The electronic effects of para-substituents at the benzoyl moieties have an influence on the binding affinities. Electron donating substituents increase, while electron-withdrawing substituents decrease the binding energies. The binding affinities obtained from both NMR titration and ITC experiments correlate well with each other. The substituent effects observed in the experimental data are reflected in adiabatic interaction energies calculated with density functional methods. The calculated structures also agree well with pseudorotaxane crystal structures.

A series of ten palladium-bis(pyridine) complexes, as well as their corresponding platinum complexes, have been synthesized. The pyridine ligands in each series carried different σ-donor and/or π-acceptor/donor substituents at the para-position of their pyridine rings. These complexes were analysed by NMR spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography, (tandem) MS, and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) to validate whether these methods allowed us to obtain a concise and systematic picture of the relative and absolute thermodynamic stabilities of the complexes, as determined by the electronic effects of the substituents. Interestingly, the NMR spectroscopic data hardly correlated with the expected substituent effects but the heteronuclear platinum-phosphorus coupling constants did. Crystallographic data were found to be blurred by packing effects. Instead, tandem MS and ITC data were in line with each other and followed the expected trends.

Two amide [2]rotaxanes were synthesized in high yields using a novel N,N'-dipropargyl diketopiperazine axle centerpiece as the template to which the stoppers are attached through "click chemistry". (1)H and 2D NMR spectra provide evidence for two different H-bonding motifs, in one of which the triazole CH groups form C-H···O═C bonds with the wheel carbonyl O atoms. This motif can be controlled and switched reversibly by competitive anion binding.