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Reversible bicarbonate and carbonate liquid|liquid ion transfer processes from aqueous solution into an organic 4-(3-phenylpropyl)pyridine phase are driven electrochemically with TPPMn(III/II) and shown to be facilitated over a wide pH range by 2-naphthylboronic acid (bicarbonate transfer potential -0.08 V vs. SCE; binding constant K(AB) = 10(2) mol(-1) dm(3) and carbonate dianion transfer potential 0.07 V vs. SCE; binding constant K(AB2) = 2 × 10(10) mol(-2) dm(6)).

Developing of alternative chiral thiol stabilizers from the assembly of achiral thiol (e.g. thioglycolic acid) and chiral ligand (e.g. arginine) via both hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interactions was proposed and successfully applied to an efficient preparation of chiral CdS quantum dots (QDs). Chiral CdS QDs capped mainly with achiral thioglycolic acid were also obtained that may allow the chiral QDs to be modified for extended applications.

Ordered honeycomb microporous films have previously been fabricated from polymeric macromolecules. We report here the successful fabrication of them from the supramolecular self-assembly of small molecules, alkylated guanosine derivatives. The ribbonlike self-assembly of the guanosines in CHCl3 is found to be the intrinsic structure that forms regular microporous structure via Bénard-Maragoni convection. Factors such as substrate, solvents, guanosine concentration, and solvent evaporation temperature are revealed to be able to control the size of the formed micropores, which in turn allows for the wettability of the honeycomb film surface to be modulated. These microporous materials exhibit excellent ability of loading organic dyes that eventually leads to the fabrication of luminescent honeycomb films. As structures of both the small molecules that can assemble and their self-assemblies can be varied and controlled, extended applications of this supramolecular method are expected to lead to microporous films of interesting functions.

This critical review highlights recent advances in the structurally modified (thio)urea-based receptors for anion complexation and sensing. Modifications of the (thio)urea structure are aimed at a better anion binding in terms of higher binding constant, anion selectivity and feasibility. Major (thio)urea receptors are reviewed as N-alkyl, N-aryl and N-amido/N-amino (thio)ureas. Hints for designing (thio)urea-based receptors for anions are discussed (102 references).

The exciplex formation between a pyridinium boronic acid and phenyl group connected via a propylene linker can be monitored using fluorescence. Addition of pinacol affords a cyclic boronate ester with enhanced Lewis acidity that increases the strength of its cation–π stacking interaction causing a four-fold fluorescence enhancement.

This critical review highlights recent advances in the structurally modified (thio)urea-based receptors for anion complexation and sensing. Modifications of the (thio)urea structure are aimed at a better anion binding in terms of higher binding constant, anion selectivity and feasibility. Major (thio)urea receptors are reviewed as N-alkyl, N-aryl and N-amido/N-amino (thio)ureas. Hints for designing (thio)urea-based receptors for anions are discussed (102 references).

A photoluminescent II–VI group semiconductor nanocrystal (NC)-based signaling platform composed of thioglycolic acid capped CdS NCs and acetylcholinesterase-acetylthiocholine enzyme catalytic reaction system was developed that was shown to be highly sensitive to nerve agents and toxic organophosphate pesticides with detection limits down to sub-nM levels. This new sensing protocol does not require troublesome conjugation of biomacromolecules onto the surface of NCs.

N-(Acetamido)-N'-phenylthioureas (4-6) were found to be efficient anion receptors with higher anion affinity than their N-benzamido-N'-phenylthiourea counterparts (1 and 2). The N'-phenylthiourea moiety in 4-6 was shown to be the chromophore with an absorption maximum at ca. 270 nm. It was found that, in the presence of anions, the absorption at ca. 270 nm of 4-6 (except 5f) in acetonitrile (MeCN) was blue shifted and enhanced while a red-shifted shoulder appeared at ca. 295 nm, together with an isosbestic point at ca. 240 nm. The 1:1 anion binding constants of 4-6, for example at 10(6)-10(7) M(-1) order of magnitude for AcO(-) in MeCN, were found to be higher than those of 1 and 2, although the acidity of the thioureido -NH protons in 4-6 is lower than that in 1 and 2. (1)H NMR data indicates that the N-N single bond in 4-6 is twisted but less than that in 1 and 2. A conformation change at the N-N single bond of 4-6 was suggested to occur upon anion binding which leads to a planar hydrogen-bonding network in the anion binding complex in which a charge transfer takes place with the N-acyl moiety being the electron acceptor. Variations in the CD signals of a proline derivative 6 bearing a chiral center in the N-amido moiety provide direct evidence for this conformation change upon its binding with anions in MeCN. The amplified effect of substituent X at the N'-phenyl ring of 5 on the anion binding constant supports the conclusion of anion-binding switched charge transfer in the anion binding complex. (1)H NMR and absorption titrations for 5 indicated that the anion-receptor interaction was of a hydrogen-bonding nature until the N'-phenyl substituent X is as electron-withdrawing as m-CF(3) (5e). With X being the more electron-withdrawing p-NO(2) (5f), deprotonation of the thioureido -NH occurs in the presence of anion. Results reported here confirm that N-amidothioureas derived from both N-aliphatic and N-aromatic amides can in general be a family of efficient hydrogen-bonding receptors, with the aliphatic N-amido derivatives being more efficient. This provides a wider structural diversity for designing thiourea-based functional molecules such as anion receptors and organocatalysts. Preliminary experiments confirm that 6 could catalyse efficiently the reduction of nitrostyrene in CH(2)Cl(2) and MeCN.

N-(p-Dimethylamino)benzoyl-N'-phenylthiourea as an N-acylthiourea is known to be unable to bind anions due to a strong intramolecular hydrogen bond (IHB). We show here that by inserting an amido group in the N'-phenyl side the newly designed N-benzamido-N'-benzoylthioureas, despite this IHB too, bind strongly to anions with binding constants on the order of 10(6)-10(7) mol(-1) L. Results suggest that potential anion receptors or organocatalysts could be developed on the basis of this framework with a wide structural diversity.

N-Methyl-N-methoxycarbonylmethyl-1-aminonaphthalene (MMAN) and N,N-dimethoxycarbonylmethyl-1-aminonaphthalene (DCAN) were synthesized and their fluorescence and absorption spectra in solvents of varied polarity were investigated and compared to those of 1-dimethylaminonaphthylene (DMAN). The data were discussed in terms of the N-substitution effects on the internal conversion (IC). Results showed that the IC was enhanced when the N-methyl group in DMAN was replaced by N-CH2CO2CH3.

A series of N-(p-dimethylaminobenzamido)-N′-(substituted-phenyl)thioureas (substituent = p-CH3, H, p-Cl, p-Br, m-Br, m-NO2, and p-NO2) were designed as anion sensors in order to better understand the –NH-spacer via a substituent effect investigation. In these molecules the dual fluorescent intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) fluorophore p-dimethylaminobenzamide as the signal reporter was linked to the anion-binding site, the thiourea moiety, via an N–N single bond. Correlation of the NMR signals of the aromatic and –NH protons with substituents in these molecules indicated that the N–N single bond stopped the ground-state electronic communication between the signal reporter and the anion-binding site. Dual fluorescence was observed in highly polar solvents such as acetonitrile with the former five derivatives. The fact that the CT emission wavelength and the CT to LE emission intensity ratio of the sensors were independent of the substituent existing in the anion-binding moiety suggested that the substituent electronic effect could not be communicated to the CT fluorophore in the excited-state either. Yet in acetonitrile both the CT dual fluorescence and the absorption of the sensors were found to be highly sensitive toward anions. A conformation change around the N–N bond in the sensor molecules was suggested to occur upon anion binding that established the electronic communication between the signal reporter and the anion-binding site. The anion binding constants of the N-(p-dimethylaminobenzamido)thiourea sensors were found higher than those of the corresponding traditional N-phenylthiourea counterparts and the substituent effect on the anion binding constant was much higher than that in the latter. “–NH–“ was shown to be a unique spacer that affords N-benzamidothiourea allosteric anion sensors.

A dual fluorescent charge transfer fluoroionophore (1) with its ionophore incorporated in the electron acceptor was developed and was found to show a highly selective fluorescent response to Cu2+ with a dramatic enhancement in its CT emission.

N-(substituted-benzoyl)-1-aminonaphthalenes and N-(substituted-benzoyl)-2-aminonaphthalenes (1-NBAs and 2-NBAs) with varied substituents at the para- or meta-position of benzoyl phenyl ring were prepared to probe the difference between 1-aminonaphthalene (1-AN) and 2-aminonaphthalene (2-AN) as electron donors, using benzanilide-like charge transfer as a probe reaction. An abnormal long-wavelength emission was found for all of the prepared aminonaphthalene derivatives in cyclohexane and was assigned to the CT state by the observation of a substantial red shift with increasing solvent polarity or with increasing electron-withdrawing ability of the substituent. The CT emission energies were found to follow a linear relationship with the Hammett constant of the substituent and the value of the linear slope for 1-NBAs (−0.45 eV) was higher than that of 2-NBAs (−0.35 eV), the latter being close to that of the aniline derivatives (BAs, −0.345 eV). This pointed to a higher extent of charge separation in the CT state of 1-NBAs in which a full charge separation was established by the reduction potential dependence of the CT emission energy with a linear slope of −1.00. The possible contribution of the difference in the steric effect and the electron donating ability of the donors in 1-NBAs and 2-NBAs was ruled out by the observation that the corresponding linear slopes of benzoyl-substituted BAs remained unchanged when para-, meta-, ortho-, or ortho,ortho-methyls were introduced into the aniline moiety. It was therefore concluded that 1-AN enhanced the charge transfer in 1-NBAs and the proximity of its 1La and 1Lb states was suggested to be responsible. Results showed that the charge transfers in 1-NBAs and 2-NBAs were not the same and 1-AN and 2-AN as electron donors were different not only in electron donating ability but in shaping the charge transfer pathway as well.

[structure: see text] A neutral receptor with a rigid hydrazine spacer, N-p-(dimethylamino)benzamido-N'-phenylthiourea, was prepared, and its dual fluorescence in acetonitrile was found to show response toward the presence of anions such as AcO(-), H(2)PO(4)(-), HSO(4)(-), Br(-), Cl(-), F(-), and ClO(4)(-) with high sensitivity and selectivity toward AcO(-).

The characterization is reported of the human herpesvirus-6B (HHV-6B) rep/U94 gene, which is a homologue of the adeno-associated virus type 2 rep. In this study, a monoclonal antibody was produced against HHV-6B REP (anti-REP mAb). Immunofluorescence staining using the anti-REP mAb showed that REP was localized to the nucleus in HHV-6-infected MT4 cells. It was first detected at 24 h post-infection (p.i.) and accumulated to higher levels by 72 h p.i. REP may be expressed only at very low levels in HHV-6-infected cells: even when the late protein glycoprotein H was detected in nearly 90% of HHV-6-infected cells, REP was detected in only a small percentage of them. Western blot analysis showed that the anti-REP mAb recognized a 56-kDa polypeptide in HHV-6B-infected MT4 cells. Furthermore, the REP protein was shown to bind single-stranded DNA.

Palladium catalysed, aryl boronic acid homocoupling, is explored as a fluorescence sensing regime for saccharides. The catalytic formation rate of fluorescent bi-aryls, under control of a palladium catalyst, is modulated by the presence of saccharides. The nature of the aryl group, rate of biaryl formation and limits of detection are investigated.

Intense room temperature phosphorescence of 1-bromonaphthalene (1-BrN) induced by p-octylpolyethylene glycol phenylether was studied in aqueous beta-cyclodextrin solution. The mode of inclusion complex formation was approached. The optimal conditions were obtained. Interferences of foreign substances with phosphorescence were examined. The phosphorescence intensity is proportional to the concentration of 1-BrN in the range 0 approximately 5.18 mug ml(-1). The recovery is 90-102% and the relative standard deviation is less than 4.5%. The proposed method is simple and convenient.

A highly selective and sensitive ratiometric fluorescent chemosensor for Ag(+) in aqueous solution was developed, in a linear range of 0.6 × 10(-7) to 50 × 10(-7) mol L(-1), based on a A-Ag(+)-A binding mode with a heptamethine cyanine motif containing one adenine moiety.

By designing a long and hydrophobic stilbeneboronic acid (STDBA) and allowing it to be included within the cavity of γ-cyclodextrin (γ-CyD) we succeeded in developing a fluorescent 2 : 2 STDBA-γ-CyD ensemble that shows a selective and sensitive response toward glucose in aqueous solutions, with satisfactory application in artificial urine samples.

Developing cavity-based supramolecular hydrogels is in its infancy because not many such hydrogelators are available. Reported herein is our creation of rigid cavitand cyclotriveratrylene (CTV) based hydrogelators from the molecular backbones of CTVs that were in limited cases shown to form organogels. For doing so deprotonable -COOH or protonable -NH(2) was introduced as terminal group into the rigid and hydrophobic CTV backbones. We thus successfully obtained optically anisotropic supramolecular hydrogels from these new CTVs hydrogelators with excellent thermostability and high tolerance towards strong electrolytes. The obtained CTV-1 and CTV-2 hydrogels are luminescent and exhibit reversible gel-to-sol and sol-to-gel transitions upon pH variations. The success in creating CTV-1 and CTV-2 hydrogelators on the basis of the skeleton of a CTV-organogelator suggests that balancing the hydrophilic and hydrophobic characters of the ionic and hydrophobic moieties well in the gelator molecule is important for designing a promising hydrogelator.

Perylene dyes tend to form H-aggregates because of their large aromatic π-core and high hydrophobicity. We report here a chiral asymmetric catalytic synthesis of water-soluble chiral J-aggregates from highly hydrophobic and achiral perylene dianhydride (PDA). We propose to generate in situ aggregating hydrophobic species from a water soluble precursor so that it aggregates at a low concentration in solution within a predesigned microenvironment to stabilize the formed aggregates. Choosing PDA as an example, we generated it in situ from a water-soluble perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylate in acidic cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) micelle solution, employing small molecule D- and/or L-tartaric acid as the chiral auxiliary. CD spectra of the PDA J-aggregates formed in the presence of D- and L-tartaric acid, respectively, were mirror images of each other. When the chiral auxiliary was absent, water-soluble J-aggregates of PDA were also obtained from acidic HCl-CTAB solution but they were then achiral. This confirms that the chirality of the J-aggregates is transferred from tartaric acid. Using an L-/D-tartaric acid mixture of varying ee as the chiral auxiliary, the exciton-coupled induced circular dichroism (ICD) signal of the formed PDA J-aggregates shows an “S”-shaped profile when plotted versus ee, indicating that chiral amplification occurs. Purified J-aggregates were found to contain PDA and CTAB, whereas tartaric acid was hardly detected, yet the ICD signals remained the same as those in the presence of tartaric acid before purification. This indicates memory in the J-aggregates of the chirality of tartaric acid. The ICD signal of the purified J-aggregates was also found to remain unchanged upon addition of a large excess of the other enantiomer of tartaric acid than the one used to induce the chirality, implying the imprinting of the chirality in the J-aggregates. The J-aggregates of PDA were shown to be positively charged from the polar heads of the CTAB surfactant molecules that help to disperse the aggregates and prevent their precipitation in aqueous solution. It was found that it is critical that the surfactant tail is long enough for the chiral J-aggregates to be created. This suggests that the hydrophobic tail might act as a pillar to support the J-aggregates that are driven by edge-edge hydrophobic interactions. With this in situ generation for the highly hydrophobic perylene dyes we succeeded in creating water soluble J-aggregates, chiral and achiral, in a controllable manner.

A ratiometric luminescent sensing of Ag(+) ion is developed via the Ag(I)-NCys coordination polymeric luminophore in situ formed in aqueous solution upon mixing Ag(+) ion with the designed fluorescent thiol ligand NCys.

N-Amidothioureas generated from amine-dimethylated natural L-phenylalanine and its D-enantiomer bearing a chiral carbon that is by 2 atoms or 3 chemical bonds away from the anion binding site establish chiral communication upon acetate anion binding to the thiourea moiety.

Substantially enhanced monosaccharide fluorescent sensing in aqueous solutions using a simple phenylboronic acid receptor is achieved by coupling the classic strategy based on saccharide-boronic acid interaction with catalytic Suzuki homocoupling reaction.

We report a novel example of ligand-chirality finely controlled in situ supramolecular hydrogel formation based on the coordination of phenylalanine (Phe) to Cu(II) with higher selectivity over other metal ions. As decreasing both enantiomeric excesses (ee%) of ligand Phe towards its D- and L-forms, the gelation ability of Phe-Cu(II) supramolecular metallogelator was found to be weakened and eventually disappeared, which likely resulted from the stereoselectivity of the ligand Phe. Intermolecular hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic and/or pi-pi stacking interactions were also found to be essential for forming the metallogel. We believe that the present work can open up a new entry for developing novel and promising chiral sensing and recognition platforms, i.e. visually sensing chiral molecules by naked eyes due to the feature of a sol-to-gel transition induced smartly by varying the ligand chirality.

The highly water insoluble N-hexadecyl-pyridinium-4-boronic acid hexafluorophosphate is synthesised and investigated for sensor applications. This amphiphilic molecule is immobilised by evaporation of an acetonitrile solution at a basal plane pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) electrode surface and is shown to provide a monolayer film. By varying the amount of deposit partial or full coverage can be achieved. The N-hexadecyl-pyridinium-4-boronic acid hexafluorophosphate monolayer acts as an active receptor for 1,2-dihydroxy-benzene (catechol) derivatives in aqueous media. The ability to bind alizarin red S is investigated and the Langmuirian binding constant determined as a function of pH. It is shown that the immobilised boronic acid monolayer acts as sensor film for a wider range of catechols. A comparison of Langmuirian binding constants for alizarin red S (1.4 × 105 mol−1 dm3), catechol (8.4 × 104 mol−1 dm3), caffeic acid (7.5 × 104 mol−1 dm3), dopamine (1.0 × 104 mol−1 dm3), and L-dopa (8 × 103 mol−1 dm3) reveals that a combination of hydrophobicity and electrostatic interaction causes considerable selectivity effects.

We found that melamine in its protonated form could be triggered by oxoanions such as NO(3)(-), PO(4)(3-), ATP, and SO(4)(2-) to form superstructures and to gelate a large amount of water molecules, presumably resulting from the electrostatic and hydrogen bonding interactions operating in a synergistic manner; the gelation can be reversibly switched off/on by increasing/decreasing pH or temperature.

We demonstrate for the first time a highly selective anion-responsive reversible gel–sol state transition in a supramolecular hydrogel of Ag(I)-glutathione (GSH) coordination polymers, which allows for facile and selective visual recognition of I−via naked eyes even in a strongly colored and/or fluorescent background. Such a strategy overcomes the drawback of spectral interferences which are often encountered in conventional colorimetric and fluorimetric means. It was rationalized that I− functioned as a depolymerizing agent for the Ag(I)-GSH supramolecular hydrogels. A feasible quantitative assay for I− was established that afforded satisfactory results for simulated wastewater samples. We believe that this strategy can in principle be applicable to other species by following a smart gel–sol state transition in designed supramolecular hydrogel.

Neutral N-amidothiourea based PET anion sensors bearing a pyrene fluorophore, 1-3, were synthesized and their fluorescent response toward anions was assessed. The anion quenching and binding constants were found to be much higher than those of the corresponding PET sensors bearing a simple thiourea receptor despite a higher oxidation potential of the electron donor and a relatively longer spacer (CH(2))(3) between the signal reporter and binding receptor in 1-3. This was explained in terms of a much more substantial increase in the electron donating ability of amidothiourea upon anion binding.