Corona[5]arenes, a novel type of macrocyclic compound that is composed of alternating heteroatoms and para-arylenes, were synthesized efficiently by two distinct methods. In a macrocycle-to-macrocycle transformation approach, S6 -corona[3]arene[3]tetrazine underwent sequential SN Ar reactions with HS-C6 H4 -X-C6 H4 -SH (X=S, CH2 , CMe2 , SO2 , and O) to produce the corresponding corona[3]arene[2]tetrazines. Different corona[3]arene[2]tetrazine compounds were also constructed in a straightforward manner by a one-pot three-component reaction of HS-C6 H4 -X-C6 H4 -SH (X=S, CH2 , CMe2 , SO2 , and O) with diethyl 2,5-dimercaptoterephthalate and 2 equiv of 3,6-dichlorotetrazine under very mild conditions. All corona[5]arenes adopted 1,2,4-alternate conformational structures in the crystalline state yielding similar nearly regular pentagonal cavities. Both the cavity size and the electronic property of the acquired macrocycles were fine-tuned by the nature of the bridging element X.
Keywords: corona[5]arenes; electrochemistry; electronic spectra; macrocycle-to-macrocycle transformations; three-component reactions.
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