No abstract

No abstract

Optical methods are promising to address the ever‐increasing demands for chirality analysis in drug discovery and related fields because they are amenable to high‐throughput screening. Circular dichroism‐based chiroptical sensing using host‐guest chemistry is especially appealing due to the fast equilibrium kinetics, wide substrate scope, and potential for sustainable development. In this Minireview, we give an overview on this emerging field. General aspects of molecular recognition and chirality transfer are analyzed. Chirality sensors are discussed by dividing them into three classes according to their structural features. Applications of these chirality sensors for chirality analysis of the products of asymmetric reactions and for the real‐time monitoring of reaction kinetics are demonstrated with selected examples. Moreover, challenges and research directions in this field are also highlighted.

Selective molecular recognition in water is the foundation of numerous biological functions but is achallenge for most synthetic hosts.W ee mploy the concept of endofunctionalizedc avity and the strategy of simultaneous construction to address this issue.T he concept and the strategy were demonstrated in the construction of abiomimetic host for selectively recognizing quinones in water.T he host was synthesized by joining two pieces of bent anthracene dimer through amide bond formation, affording adeep hydrophobic cavity and inward-directing hydrogen bonding sites.T he host can recognizequinones over their close analogues in water,and its association affinity to p-benzoquinone is the highest among all the knownh osts and is even comparable to that of the bioreceptor.T he binding with an anthraquinone reaches nanomolar affinity.S hielded hydrogen bonding,C À H•••p, and charge transfer interactions,a nd the hydrophobic effect are responsible for the high binding affinity and selectivity.

A water-soluble tetralactam macrocycle is synthesized and characterized. This macrocycle is able to strongly bind riboflavin (Ka >107 M−1) in water and provides strong photoprotection of riboflavin upon UV irradiation.

Two new naphthotubes with ester linkers were synthesized and characterized. With the syn isomers of an ester naphthotube and an ether naphthotube, strong positive allosteric cooperativity in a ternary complex with two different hosts on one guest was achieved. This paves the way to construct robust supramolecular architectures with high complexity and diversity.

No abstract

Two-dimensional structures in water were self-assembled from rigid and curved amphiphiles with very low molecular weight (MW < 500 Da). The amphiphiles contain a bisnaphthalene core. Their structures have been characterized using 1H NMR spectroscopy, SEM, TEM, AFM, and DLS. The driving force was mainly attributed to hydrophobic effects.