Synthesis of podands hearing aromatic end groups and complex formation with tropylium tetrafluoroborate in 1,2-dichloroethane

A series of podands bearing phenyl, naphthyl and anthryl end groups were pr epared and characterized. UV-visible spectrophotometry was used to investig ate the host-guest chemistry of the podands in complexation with tropylium tetrafluoroborate in 1,2-dichloroethane. The results are discussed and comp ared with those for previously studied systems containing crown ethers. The stability constants for these open-chain polyethers are in the range 5.1-8 .4 dm(3) mol(-1), except for the podand having anthryl end groups [1,12-bis (anthryl-9)-2,5,8,11-tetraoxadodecane], which gives a 10-fold increase in t he stability constant. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.