For more than 150 years, since the synthesis of urea by Friedrich Wöhler in 1828, molecular chemistry has developed a vast array of highly sophisticated and powerful methods for the construction of more complex molecular structures. Beyond the molecular chemistry based on the covalent bond, there lies the field of supramolecular chemistry, aims to gain control over the intermolecular bond. Supramolecular species are characterized both by the spatial arrangement of their components and by the nature of the intermolecular bonds that hold these components together. They possess well-defined structural, conformational, thermodynamic and kinetic properties. Research has been focused on utilization of such confined spaces to manipulate reaction dynamics, properties of the encapsulated guest molecules. This research presented in this thesis is a consolidated account of photophysical and photochemical reactions carried in water-soluble macrocycles, cavitands and dynamic host systems such as dendrimers and micelles. With the aid of NMR (1D and 2D) spectroscopic techniques, the host-guest complex characterization is executed.

Supramolecular systems comprised of non-covalent interactions are reversible in nature. This intrinsic reversibility of these systems is essential in achieving several functions, making it crucial to understand the dynamics of supramolecular systems. However, studies on the dynamics of supramolecular systems have always lagged behind structural and thermodynamic characterization of innumerable supramolecular systems developed. The first objective of this work was to understand the dynamics leading to a shift in the acidity constant (pKa) for 2-aminoanthracenium cation (AH+) upon binding with cucurbit[7]uril (CB[7]) host molecule. The adiabatic deprotonation of free AH+ in water was found to be inhibited in the complex with CB[7]. Different spectral characteristics for the protonated and deprotonated form of the guest molecule were used to understand the mechanism of this pKa shift associated with the binding to CB[7]. The results suggested that the pKa shift upon binding with CB[7] is a result of the slowing down of the deprotonation step in the complex, whereas the association rate constant did not change very much. The second objective of this work was to understand the role of cations on the binding dynamics of the N-phenyl-2-naphthyl amine (Ph-A-Np) binding to CB[7]. Ph-A-Np has two binding sites, which can lead to 1:1 and 2:1 host-guest complexes. The results indicate a switch in the binding mechanism for Ph-A-Np at low and high concentration regimes of sodium ions. Sodium ion was found to reduce the binding affinity of the naphthyl group to CB[7] whereas the complex formed by the phenyl group with CB[7] bound to one sodium ion was found to be stabilized. The final objective of this work was to study how structural changes to a guest molecule can affect the binding dynamics for the formation of a 2:1 “capsule” like complex with octa acid (OA). The dissociation for the OA capsule with pyrene (Py) as the encapsulated guest was shown to happen in 2.7 s previously. Two pyrene derivatives, 1-methylpyrene (MePy) and 1-pyrenemethanol (PyMeOH) were chosen as guest molecules to study the effect of these substituents on pyrene on the capsule dissociation dynamics. The results show that the residence time for the guests in the OA capsule depends on the substituents. For PyMeOH and MePy a shorter and longer residence time respectively in the capsule was observed when compared to Py. / Graduate / 2019-09-30

Supramolecular systems, which are formed by the noncovalent intermolecular interactions between molecules, are highly dynamic. The high reversibility of supramolecular systems leads to some functional features that cannot be achieved by the single chemical component. The kinetic information for the supramolecular systems can not be inferred from thermodynamic studies or structural studies. Furthermore, the information provided by the dynamic study can be employed to infer or explain the results from the thermodynamic study and the structural study. The first objective of this work was to study the dynamics and the binding mechanism of cucurbit[7]uril with a charged guest molecule (2-naphthyl-1-ethylammonium cation, NpAmH+). In general, the binding affinity of cucurbit[7]uril to the positively charged guests are very high compared with other host systems such as cyclodextrins and bile salt aggregates. In this work, the complexation of cucurbit[7]uril and NpAmH+ was studied from a kinetic point of view. Results showed that the high binding affinity of cucurbit[7]uril to NpAmH+ was due to the high association rate constant and the low dissociation rate constant for the complexation of cucurbit[7]uril and NpAmH+. Moreover, the competition between co-cations and NpAmH+ for the binding sites of cucurbituril molecules retarded the complexation process for cucurbit[7]uril binding to NpAmH+ and decreased the overall equilibrium constant for the formation of cucurbit[7]uril-NpAmH+ complex. The second objective of this work was to study the chiral recognition observed for the formation of 2:2 complexes between β-cyclodextrin and 2-naphthyl-1-ethanol (NpOH). The binding of β-cyclodextrin and NpOH leads to the formation of two 1:1 complexes and three 2:2 complexes. The binding dynamics of NpOH with β-cyclodextrin in the 1:1 complex is fast and occurs within microseconds. A much slower dynamics was observed for the formation of the 2:2 complex. Results showed that more 2:2 complex were formed for (R)-NpOH than for (S)-NpOH, which is due to the difference of the dissociation rate constant of the 2:2 complex for both NpOH enantiomers. The dissociation rate constant of the 2:2 complex for (R)-NpOH is 46.8% lower than that for (S)-NpOH while the association rate constant of the 2:2 complex are similar for both NpOH enantiomers. The third objective of this work was to study the dynamics and the binding mechanism of octa acid with pyrene. As known from the work of other researchers, the accessibility of small molecules (e.g. I- or O2) to pyrene bound to octa acid is largely limited by the octa acid capsule. In this study, a two-step successive process was observed for the complexation of octa acid and pyrene. The first step, which was related to the formation of octa acid-pyrene 1:1 complex, was sufficiently fast to be viewed as a pre-equilibrium process. The second step, which was related to the formation of octa acid-pyrene 2:1 complex, was slow on the millisecond – second time scale. The high binding affinity of octa acid to pyrene was observed, which is due to the low dissociation rate constant for the octa acid-pyrene 2:1 complex. / Graduate