Site-Specific Description of the Enhanced Recognition Between Electrogenerated Nitrobenzene Anions and Dihomooxacalix[4]arene Bidentate Ureas

J Org Chem. 2015 May 1;80(9):4581-9. doi: 10.1021/acs.joc.5b00441. Epub 2015 Apr 13.

Abstract

Electron transfer controlled hydrogen bonding was studied for a series of nitrobenzene derivative radical anions, working as large guest anions, and substituted ureas, including dihomooxacalix[4]arene bidentate urea derivatives, in order to estimate binding constants (Kb) for the hydrogen-bonding process. Results showed enhanced Kb values for the interaction with phenyl-substituted bidentate urea, which is significantly larger than for the remaining compounds, e.g., in the case of 4-methoxynitrobenzene a 28-fold larger Kb value was obtained for the urea bearing a phenyl (Kb ∼ 6888) vs tert-butyl (Kb ∼ 247) moieties. The respective nucleophilic and electrophilic characters of the participant anion radical and urea hosts were parametrized with global and local electrodonating (ω(-)) and electroaccepting (ω(+)) powers, derived from DFT calculations. ω(-) data were useful for describing trends in structure–activity relationships when comparing nitrobenzene radical anions. However, ω(+) for the host urea structures lead to unreliable explanations of the experimental data. For the latter case, local descriptors ωk(+)(r) were estimated for the atoms within the urea region in the hosts [∑kωk(+)(r)]. By compiling all the theoretical and experimental data, a Kb-predictive contour plot was built considering ω(-) for the studied anion radicals and ∑kωk(+)(r) which affords good estimations.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Anions / chemistry
  • Calixarenes / chemistry*
  • Electrochemical Techniques*
  • Electron Transport
  • Free Radicals / chemistry
  • Hydrogen Bonding
  • Molecular Structure
  • Nitrobenzenes / chemistry*
  • Urea / chemistry*

Substances

  • Anions
  • Free Radicals
  • Nitrobenzenes
  • dihomooxacalix(4)arene
  • Calixarenes
  • Urea
  • nitrobenzene