Resorcinarene-based cavitands with chiral amino acid substituents for chiral amine recognition

Resorcinarene-based deep cavitands alanine methyl resorcinarene acid (AMA), alanine undecyl resorcinarene acid (AUA) and glycine undecyl resorcinarene acid (GUA), which contain chiral amino acids, have been synthesized. The upper rim of the resorcinarene host is elongated with four identical substituents topped with alanine and glycine groups. The structures of the new resorcinarenes were elucidated by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), mass spectrometry (MS) and the sustained off-resonance irradiation collision induced dissociation (SORI-CID) technique in FTICR-MS. These studies revealed that eight water molecules associate to the cavitand, two for each alanine group. The alanine substituent groups are proposed to form a kite-like structure around the resorcinarene scaffold. The binding of AMA, AUA, and GUA with chiral R- and S-methyl benzyl amines was studied by (1)H NMR titration, and compared to that of a binary L-tartaric acid and the monoacid phthalyl alanine (PA). The results show that these compounds interact with amine guests; however, with four carboxylic acid groups, they bind several amine molecules strongly while the binary L-tartaric acid only binds one amine guest strongly. The simple compound PA, which contains one carboxylic group, shows weak binding to the amines. The (1)H NMR titration of AUA with primary, secondary, and tertiary chiral amines showed that it can discriminate between these three types of amines and showed chiral discrimination for chiral secondary amines.