Most of the halogen bonding receptors for anions described use halogen bonding binding sites solely in the anion recognition process; only a few examples report the study of anion receptors in which the halogen bonding interaction has been used in combination with any other non-covalent interaction. With the aims to extend the knowledge in the behaviour of this kind of mixed receptors, we report here the synthesis and the anion recognition and sensing properties of a new halogen- and hydrogen- bonding receptor which binds anions by the cooperation of both non-covalent interactions. Fluorescence studies showed that the behaviour observed in the anion recognition sensing is similar to the one previously described for the halogen analogue and is quite different to the hydrogen one. On the other hand, the association constants obtained by ¹H-NMR data demonstrate that the mixed halogen- and hydrogen-bonding receptor is more selective for SO₄2- anion than the halogen or hydrogen analogues.
Keywords: anion; fluorescence; halogen-bonding; hydrogen-bonding; imidazolium; recognition; sensing.