Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Stereochemistry Of Selected Supramolecular Complexes Of Cucurbiturils And The Effect Of Homogeneous Equilibria And Electron Transfer Of The Guest, Arumugam Thangavel

Doctoral Dissertations

"From a practical perspective, host-guest complexes are vehicles for understanding and using supramolecular interactions for purposeful function in sensors, molecular machines and switches, while from a fundamental perspective they may lead to novel supramolecular protection schemes in basic organic reactions. This dissertation examines the interactions of cucurbiturils as barrel-shaped hosts, exhibiting a hydrophobic cavity, with substituted benzoylpyrydinium, phenypyrylium, and diazaanthraquinonediium cations as guests. In water, N-methyl-4-(p-substituted benzoyl)pyridinium cations exist in equilibrium with their hydrated forms (gem-diols), whose concentrations depend on the para substituent. In the presence of cucurbit7uril (CB[7]), the benzoyl group shows a preference for the CB[7] cavity, and …