In this article we investigate the effect of multivalency in chiral recognition. To this end, we measured the host-guest interaction of a β-cyclodextrin dimer with divalent chiral guests. We report the synthesis of carbohydrate-based water soluble chiral guests functionalized with two borneol, menthol, or isopinocampheol units in either (+) or (-) configuration. We determined the interaction of these divalent guests with a β-cyclodextrin dimer using isothermal titration calorimetry. It was found that-in spite of a highly unfavorable conformation-the cyclodextrin dimer binds to guest dimers with an increased enantioselectivity, which clearly reflects the effect of multivalency.
Keywords: chiral recognition; cyclodextrins; host-guest complexes; isothermal titration calorimetry; multivalency.