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Sulfonamide groups, commonly used as neutral hydrogen bond donors in a wide variety of anion receptors, deprotonate upon addition of certain basic anionic guests in two simple functionalised ureas.

Two cleft-like anion receptors have been synthesised that contain indole hydrogen-bond donors and show fluoride selectively in a DMSO-water solution with crystallographic studies showing a 'twisted' binding mode for fluoride in the solid state.

Pyridinium based ionic liquids form complexes with meso-octamethylcalix[4]pyrrole with both the anion and cation binding to the tetrapyrrole macrocycle.

The conformational preorganization and anion-induced conformational changes of indole-based receptors functionalized with an amide group at the 2-position and a variety of amide, urea and thiourea moieties at the 7-position have been studied by the means of NMR spectroscopy. NOE experiments showed that anti-anti orientation across C2-C2alpha and C7-N7alpha bonds is preferred for receptors 1-4 in acetone solution in the absence of anions. Anion-receptor interactions have been evaluated through (1)H and (15)N chemical shift changes. In 2,7-bis-carboxamido functionalized indoles the interaction with chloride and bromide anions primarily occurs at the indole H1 proton. The introduction of urea and thiourea moieties increases the number of hydrogen bond donor sites which manifests itself in a distribution of halide-receptor interactions among the H1, H7alpha and H7gamma protons. Acetate anions also interact strongly with indole and urea NH donor groups, whereas nitrate anions interact solely with H7alpha and H7gamma urea/thiourea protons. NOE enhancements in the presence of anions revealed that anion-receptor complexes favour the syn-syn conformation of the C2 and C7 substituents.

Metal complexes of 2,5-dicarboxamidopyrroles and 2,5-dicarbothioamidopyrroles have been structurally characterised for the first time, complementing the significant amount of work that has been reported for the analogous pyridine ligands. N,N′-Bis(3,5-dinitrophenyl)-3,4-diphenyl-1H-pyrrole-2,5-dicarboxamide forms octahedral bis(tridentate) complexes with cobalt(III) and nickel(II), where the ligands are bound to the metal centres through deprotonated pyrrole and amide N atoms. N,N′-Dibutyl-3,4-diphenyl-1H-pyrrole-2,5-dicarboxthioamide and N,N′-diphenyl-3,4-diphenyl-1H-pyrrole-2,5-dicarboxthioamide also form bis(tridentate) cobalt complexes but are only deprotonated at the pyrrole N atom, the remainder of the coordination sphere comprising the thioamide S atoms. The dibutyl derivative was isolated as a Co(II) complex, whereas the diphenyl system deposited a Co(III) complex. In contrast, N,N′-dibutyl-3,4-dichloro-1H-pyrrole-2,5-dicarboxamide was found to act as a bidentate ligand, in an octahedral cobalt(II) complex comprising of two bidentate pyrrole ligands, and two aqua ligands. Synthesis of N,N-bis(pyridin-2-ylmethyl)-3,4-diphenyl-1H-pyrrole-2,5-carboxamide gave a pyrrole ligand with increased denticity. Reaction with cobalt(II) chloride resulted in the isolation of a dinuclear helicate complex. The ligand was found to have undergone addition of a methoxy group to one of the linking methylene carbons, presumably as a result of the oxidative addition of solvent methanol.

International audience; Proton NMR titrations have been performed with meso-octacalix[4]pyrrole and a variety of organic chloride and bromide salts in dichloromethane-d2. The results show apparently increasing chloride stability constants within each set of anion salts (tetrabutylammonium < imidazolium < pyridinium). Addition of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidaolium (EMIM) nitrate to dichloromethane-d2 solutions of calix[4]pyrrole caused significantly larger downfield shifts of the pyrrole NH protons of calix[4]pyrrole than addition of equimolar quantities of tetrabutylammonium nitrate. The first crystal structure of a nitrate complex of a calix[4]pyrrole is also presented.

This review article provides a broad overview to the area of anion coordination by synthetic organic receptors and includes examples of different functional groups used to bind anions. The first section examines neutral anion receptors containing amide-, sulfonamide-, urea- and thiourea-based receptors. Then aromatics such as pyrrole, carbazole and indole are discussed before concluding the discussion of neutral systems with examples of hydroxy OH donors. A brief overview of charged systems is also provided.

A series of 2,7-functionalized indoles have been synthesized with appended amide and/or urea or thiourea groups. Anion complexation studies show a marked difference in the mode of interaction of carboxylates with indole-ureas vs indole-amides.

The interaction of calixpyrrole with several chloride salts has been studied in the solid state by X-ray crystallography as well as in solution by isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and (1)H NMR spectroscopic titrations. The titration results in dimethylsulfoxide, acetonitrile, nitromethane, 1,2-dichloroethane, and dichloromethane, carried out using various chloride salts, specifically tetraethylammonium (TEA), tetrapropylammonium (TPA), tetrabutylammonium (TBA), tetraethylphosphonium (TEP), tetrabutylphosphonium (TBP), and tetraphenylphosphonium (TPhP), showed no dependence on method of measurement. The resulting affinity constants (K(a)), on the other hand, were found to be highly dependent on the choice of solvent with K(a)'s ranging from 10(2)-10(5) M(-1) being recorded in the test solvents used for this study. In dichloromethane, a strong dependence on the countercation was also seen, with the K(a)'s for the interaction with chloride ranging from 10(2)-10(4) M(-1). In the case of TPA, TBA, and TBP, the ITC data could not be fit to a 1:1 binding profile.

The first crystal structures of anion complexes of N-confused calix[4]pyrrole are presented showing chloride binding to the three ‘unconfused’ pyrrole NH groups and imidazolium inclusion in the calixpyrrole cup.