The thiourea based receptor containing naphthalene groups (1), has been successfully designed and synthesized for application as an oxalate receptor. A density functional theory at B3LYP/6-31G(d,p) level of theory has been applied to predict the binding ability between 1 and selected anions, i.e., oxalate, malonate, succinate, glutarate, dihydrogen phosphate, and hydrogen sulphate. Calculation results point out that receptor 1 shows the strongest interaction to oxalate ion with the binding free energy of 172.48 kcal mol(-1). The recognition ability of 1 to the selected anions has been also investigated by means of the absorption and emission techniques. Experimental results are in excellent agreement with the calculation data in which receptor 1 shows highly selective for oxalate ion over the other anions with logbeta of 3.82 (0.02) M(-1) by means of the size of binding cavity.
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