Abstract
Upon mixing in non-polar solvent such as chloroform and toluene, an optically-active amidine and an achiral carboxylic acid bearing two oligo(ethylene oxide) chains with a vinyl group at both ends quantitatively formed the corresponding precatenane, of which the formation was supported by 1H NMR. The precatenane was subjected to ring-closing metathesis using Grubbs' 1st generation catalyst, and the [2]catenane was obtained in 67% yield after chromatographic purification. The structure of the [2]catenane was characterized by 1D and 2D 1H NMR measurements along with ESI-mass spectrometry.
