The molecular host cucurbit [7]uril forms an extremely stable inclusion complex with the dicationic ferrocene derivative bis(trimethylammoniomethyl)ferrocene in aqueous solution. The equilibrium association constant for this host-guest pair is 3 ؋ 10 15 M ؊1 (Kd ‫؍‬ 3 ؋ 10 ؊16 M), equivalent to that exhibited by the avidinbiotin pair. Although purely synthetic systems with larger association constants have been reported, the present one is unique because it does not rely on polyvalency. Instead, it achieves its extreme affinity by overcoming the compensatory enthalpyentropy relationship usually observed in supramolecular complexes. Its disproportionately low entropic cost is traced to extensive host desolvation and to the rigidity of both the host and the guest.cucurbituril ͉ entropy control ͉ ferrocene derivatives ͉ host-guest complexation ͉ thermodynamics

A dicationic ferrocene derivative has previously been shown to bind cucurbit[7]uril (CB[7]) in water with ultra-high affinity (ΔGo= −21 kcal/mol). Here, we describe new compounds that bind aqueous CB[7] equally well, validating our prior suggestion that they, too, would be ultra-high affinity CB[7] guests. The present guests, which are based upon either a bicyclo[2.2.2]octane or adamantane core, have no metal atoms, so these results also confirm that the remarkably high affinities of the ferrocene-based guest need not be attributed to metal-specific interactions. Because we used the M2 method to compute the affinities of several of the new host-guest systems prior to synthesizing them, the present results also provide for the first blinded evaluation of this computational method. The blinded calculations agree reasonably well with experiment and successfully reproduce the observation that the new adamantane-based guests achieve extremely high affinities, despite the fact that they position a cationic substituent at only one electronegative portal of the CB[7] host. However, there are also significant deviations from experiment, and these lead to the correction of a procedural error and an instructive evaluation of the sensitivity of the calculations to physically reasonable variations in molecular energy parameters. The new experimental and computational results presented here bear on the physical mechanisms of molecular recognition, the accuracy of the M2 method, and the usefulness of host-guest systems as test-beds for computational methods.

It has recently been discovered that guests combining a nonpolar core with cationic substituents bind cucurbit[7]uril (CB[7]) in water with ultra-high affinities. The present study uses the Mining Minima algorithm to study the physics of these extraordinary associations and to computationally test a new series of CB[7] ligands designed to bind with similarly high affinity. The calculations reproduce key experimental observations regarding the affinities of ferrocene-based guests with CB[7] and β-cyclodextrin and provide a coherent view of the roles of electrostatics and configurational entropy as determinants of affinity in these systems. The newly designed series of compounds is based on a bicyclo[2.2.2]octane core, which is similar in size and polarity to the ferrocene core of the existing series. Mining Minima predicts that these new compounds will, like the ferrocenes, bind CB[7] with extremely high affinities.