Synthesis, photophysical and NMR evaluations of thiourea-based anion receptors possessing an acetamide moiety

The synthesis and photophysical evaluation of three diaryl thiourea-based anion receptors (4-6) for comparison with their urea counterparts (1-3) is outlined. These anion receptors posses an acetamide functionality on one of the aryl groups and an electron-withdrawing CF3 group on the other. By varying the position of the acetamide group, in the o-, m- and p-positions of 4-6, respectively, the anion binding ability was both tuneable and found to be, in some cases, significantly different from that seen for the urea analogues 1-3. The binding affinities of the receptors 4-6, as well as the binding stoichiometries, were evaluated using UV-vis absorption spectroscopy in MeCN. However, these receptors were not sufficiently emissive to quantify the anion recognition using fluorescence. The results confirmed strong binding of these receptors to anions such as fluoride, acetate, phosphate, pyrophosphate and chloride. Nevertheless, the overall results obtained did not conform to the anticipated trends seen for 1-3, which is most likely due to the enhanced binding affinity of the thiourea analogues 4-6. The binding interactions were also investigated by using 1H NMR which confirmed that these receptors interacted with the anions in a stepwise manner, where the primary anion binding interaction occurred at the thiourea side, which led to an activation of the acetamide moiety towards the second anion binding interaction, an example of an allosteric activation mode.