Change in conformation upon complexation of double-armed terephthalamide hosts: dynamic molecular recognition of ditopic guests with strong CD signaling

Conformation of novel terephthalamide hosts 1 changes from anti to syn upon complexation with a bidentate guest (2 or 3). Chiral sense in the helical syn-form of the double-armed host molecules 1 is biased by the asymmetric centers on the chiral guest [(R,R)/(S,S)-2a], which can be detected by the drastic change in circular dichroism (CD) spectrum thanks to the exciton coupling of two chromophores (‘arms’) linked to the amide nitrogens. Asymmetric centers on the host molecule also exhibit preference for the twisting direction upon change in geometry from the anti- to syn-form. Thus, the achiral guests (2b or 3) can also be detected by modulation of CD spectrum upon complexation with the chiral host [(R,R)-1a].