Development of hydrindacene dimer-based allosteric receptors toward chiral molecular recognition

Abstract

We have designed a novel allosteric receptor by connecting two hydrindacene units with a spacer unit working as a rotational axle. We expected that this receptor would show a positive homotropic allosteric binding ability toward two guest molecules due to the rotational restriction of hydrindacene units upon binding with the first guest. In addition, the introduction of asymmetric centers at 2, 6 positions of each hydrindacene units could lead to a novel allosteric receptor with a chiral molecular recognition ability. We report here the preparation, spectroscopic and binding properties of a chiral di(4-hydrindacenyl)acetylene.