Synthetic molecular receptors find applications in the selective extraction, transport and detection of neutral or charged species and the study of these systems is an important facet of supramolecular chemistry. In this thesis, we focused our attention on a specific family of molecular receptors called calix[6]arenes. These receptors possess a hydrophobic cavity formed by 6 aromatic rings that can accommodate small organic molecules. They can furthermore be easily functionalized and give rise to for example ditopic receptors or sensing systems. We worked with two families of calix[6]arenes but also looked at the complexation properties of some related compounds: a homooxacalix[3]arene and a resorcin[4]arene derivatives. The first part of this thesis is devoted to the study of the complexation properties of a fluorescent calix[6]tris-pyrenylurea. The binding of anions, ion pairs, ion triads and phospholipids was monitored by 1H Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Emission Spectroscopy. Our results showed that the receptor exhibits a remarkable selectivity for the sulfate anion in DMSO for which a binding constant of the order of 103 M-1 was found. In chloroform the affinity for sulfate is of the order of 105 M-1 and the selective recognition of ammonium-TBASO4 triads was observed (TBA = tetra-n-butylammonium; ammonium = PrNH3+, HexNH3+ or DodNH3+). This work has been reported in the paper “Fluorescent Chemosensors for Anions and Contact Ion Pairs with a Cavity-Based Selectivity” Emilio Brunetti, Jean-François Picron, Karolina Flidrova, Gilles Bruylants, Kristin Bartik and Ivan Jabin J. Org. Chem. 2014, 79, 6179–6188. We also showed that calix[6]tris-pyrenylurea displays a remarkable selectivity in chloroform for phospholipids bearing a phosphatidylcholine head (PCs) over those bearing a phosphoethanolamine head (PEs). We were able to show that this fluorescent receptor is able to extract PCs from a water solution enabling their quantification. This work has been reported in the paper “A Selective Calix[6]arene-based Fluorescent Chemosensor for Phosphatidylcholine Type Lipids” Emilio Brunetti, Steven Moerkerke, Johan Wouters, Kristin Bartik and Ivan Jabin Org. Biomol. Chem. 2016. Accepted Manuscript. DOI: 10.1039/C6OB01880G.The second part of this thesis is devoted to the evaluation of the binding properties of different receptors incorporated into dodecylphosphocholine (DPC) micelles. This strategy was used to make the hydrophobic molecular receptors “water-compatible” without having to undertake synthetic modifications. Our results showed that a calix[6]azacryptand-based receptor can be incorporated into DPC micelles, either as a zinc complex or as a polyammonium at low pH. We observed that the zinc complex incorporated in the micelles is able to bind small and long linear primary amines in its cavity and we were able to highlight that complexation is driven by the hydrophobic effect. This work has been reported in the paper “Primary Amine Recognition in Water by a Calix[6]aza-cryptand Incorporated in Dodecylphosphocholine Micelles” Emilio Brunetti, Alex Inthasot, Flore Keymeulen, Olivia Reinaud, Ivan Jabin and Kristin Bartik Org. Biomol. Chem. 2015, 13, 2931-2938.We also validated the micellar incorporation strategy with a homooxacalix[3]tris-acid and with a resorcin[4]arene zinc complex bearing four methyl-imidazole moieties. Once incorporated into DPC micelles, we showed that the two receptors can bind small organic guests: the homooxacalix[3]arene derivative can bind tert-butylammonium or adamantylammonium, albeit with low affinity and the resorcin[4]arene-based zinc complex can bind acetate and acetylacetone.The final part of this thesis is devoted to the work undertaken in order to try and elucidate the guest exchange mechanism of calix[6]arene-zinc complexes where the zinc is tri-coordinated to the calixarene-based ligand and coordinates a guest molecule inside the calixarene cavity. The hypothesis that we put forward is that when the zinc is only tri-coordinated to the calixarene ligand, the guest exchange mechanism involves a zinc penta-coordinated intermediate where the zinc atom is simultaneous coordinated to an endo-complexed guest (inside the cavity) and an exo-complexed molecule (outside the cavity). 1D EXchange SpectroscopY experiments (EXSY) were undertaken with two calix[6]arene-zinc complexes where the zinc is tri-coordinated to the calixarene ligand and with a calix[6]arene-zinc complex where the zinc is tetra-coordinated to the calixarene ligand. The exchange of different guests (ethanol, dimethylformamide and acetonitrile) was monitored in deuterated dichloromethane. We observed that in all cases water accelerates guest exchange but that the guest residence times are highly dependent on the acidity of the metal center and on the nature of the guest buried inside the cavity. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur et technologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ulb.ac.be/oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/240961 |
| Date | 02 December 2016 |
| Creators | Brunetti, Emilio |
| Contributors | Bartik, Kristin, Jabin, Ivan, Delplancke, Marie-Paule, Bruylants, Gilles, Luhmer, Michel, Reinaud, Olivia, David, Landy |
| Publisher | Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Université libre de Bruxelles, Ecole polytechnique de Bruxelles – Chimie et Science des Matériaux, Bruxelles |
| Source Sets | Université libre de Bruxelles |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, info:ulb-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, info:ulb-repo/semantics/openurl/vlink-dissertation |
| Format | 241 p., 3 full-text file(s): application/pdf | application/pdf | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Rights | 3 full-text file(s): info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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