ABSTRACT:The cation-binding property has been studied for polymer 1 consisting of 3,4-di-0-methyl-D-glucitol units, ( 1-->6)-2,5-anhydro-3,4-di-0-methyl-D-glucitol, and polymer 2 with a mole fraction of cyclized units of 0.52 synthesized by the polymerization of 1 ,2:5,6-dianhydro-3,4-0-isopropylidene-D-mannitol. Polymer 1 exhibited cation-binding selectivity in the order of K + > Rb + > Cs + > Na + > Li +,which was estimated using both liquid-liquid extraction and liquid-membrane transport methods. On the other hand, 2 showed an extremely low cation-binding characteristic in both extraction yield and selectivity, and the yield of K + for 2 was ca. one-eighth of that for 1. There was a need for ca. 21-25 and ca. 200--400 repeating units in the complexes of 1 and 2 with K +, respectively. The binding ability of 1 strongly depended on the radius of the metal cations, and the extraction yields were relatively low for a cation with a radius of 1.12A and below (Mg 2 +, Li+, Ni2+, Co2+, Cu 2 +, Zn 2 +, Cd2+, Na +, Ca 2 +, and Sr 2 +) and high for a cation with a radius of 1.20 A and above (Pb2+, Ag+, K +, Ba2+, Rb+, and Cs+).KEY WORDSMacromolecular ionophores such as poly(cyclooxalkane)diyl, 1 poly(7-oxanorbornene), 2 and (1---+6)-2,5-anhydro-3,4-di-0-alkyl-o-glucitol (alkyl= CH 3 , 1) 3 -6 recognize a metal cation and form a complex with it, as do naturally occurring acyclic ionophores. In the hostguest complexations, the molecular recognitions are supposed to realize that helical conformers of these polymers vary their pitch and cavity size for optimizing multidentate coordination with a given cation. Therefore, it is of interest to elucidate the effect of the structural regularity and number of repeating units in the host polymer on the molecular discrimination, when the polymer forms the complex with a cationic guest.Previously, we reported the difference in the cyclopolymerization tendency between 3,4-di-0-methyl and 3,4-0-isopropylidene-1 ,2: 5,6-dianhydro-o-mannitols, i.e., the former polymerization produced regio-and stereospecific polymer 1, 7 whereas the latter yielded polymer 2 consisting of cyclic and acyclic constitutional repeating units. 8 Thus they are suitable polymers for investigating the effect of polymer structure on the molecular recognition toward a cationic guest. Moreover, the molecular recognition property of a macromolecular ionophore is of great interest in relation to the fact that a naturally occurring acyclic ionophore transports a metal cation through a liquid membrane system. In this paper, we report that the alkali metal cationbinding properties of I and 2 are characterized using a liquid-liquid extraction method and those for I using a liquid-membrane transport system. For the complexes with K +, the number of repeating units in I and 2 is estimated by changing the ratio of the units to K +. In addition, the relation between the metal cation radius and the binding property of 1 is clarified using various metal cations.
EXPERIMENTAL
MaterialsThe synthesis of polymers I and 2 was repor...