Conformational control of molecular tweezers by thiol-disulfide redox reaction

Abstract

Conformational control of molecular tweezers having a disulfide bond of an alkyl ring is presented. The tweezers having the disulfide bond adopted the cleft conformation by the intramolecular CH/pi interaction between the alkyl chain and the terminal naphthalene rings. When the disulfide bond of the alkyl ring was broken, the structure was changed to have the stepped conformation. The thiol-disulfide redox reaction readily proceeded to control the conformation of the tweezers.