NEW FRONTIERS IN HOST-GUEST CHEMISTRY - THE GAS-PHASE

Aspects of host-guest complexation are examined in the solvent-free environment of a mass spectrometer. A kinetic dissociation method is used to determine orders of relative ammonium and alkali metal cation binding affinities of an array of model hosts, such as crown ethers and their acyclic analogs. Size-selective effects on binding are observed from these gas-phase experiments. The binding properties of complexes bound by multiple hydrogen-binding interactions are examined by collisionally activated dissociation techniques.