Syn th esis a n d Ch a r a cter iza tion of Ca tion ic Iod on iu m Ma cr ocycles
Ukkiramapandian Radhakrishnan and Peter J . Stang*
Department of Chemistry, University of Utah, 315 South 1400 East, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112
stang@chemistry.utah.edu
Received J uly 31, 2003
A synthetic strategy for the high-yield preparation of iodonium containing macrocycles such as
rhomboids, a square, and a pentagon is described, with the long-term objective of preparing iodonium
compounds for potential molecular electronics applications. Two cationic rhomboid shaped molecules
were prepared for the first time (55-70%) by the treatment of compounds 11 and 12a or 12b with
Me3SiOTf. The reaction of dication 8 with 6 in the presence of Me3SiOTf gave an iodonium containing
molecular square in 70% yield. In addition, a pentagon-shaped macromolecule was prepared in
60% yield. These iodonium-containing charged macromolecules were characterized by multinuclear
NMR, mass spectrometry, and physical means.
CHART 1
In tr od u ction
One of the most exciting and rewarding challenges
chemists face today is to devise a wholly synthetic
macromolecular system for potential applications in
nanotechnology.1 Since the discovery of crown ethers by
Pederson, the interest in the synthesis of neutral
macrocycles such as cyclodextrins, crown ethers, and
cryptands, which can act as molecular or cationic recep-
tors has continually increased.2 In recent years, the
synthesis and investigation on the properties of cationic
macromolecules have attracted attention as well.3,4 To
date, there are two major category of charged macro-
molecular systems those containing nitrogen-carbon
bonds (1)3 and nitrogen-metal bonds (2)4 that have been
explored for their potential application in molecular
electronics4,5 and host-guest chemistry.6,7 Stoddart et al.
have utilized cationic cyclobis(paraquat-p-phenylene) 1
as a basic entity in a number of electrochemically
switchable molecular and supramolecular systems such
as catenanes and rotaxanes (Chart 1).3,8 The catenanes
and rotaxanes are important structural units for the
construction of artificial nanomolecular machines.9
Most of the work in this area has been guided and
governed by the synthetic availability, stability, fatigue
resistance, and toxicity of a given molecular architecture
to be used as a basis for complex design. It is well-known
that polyvalent iodonium compounds are widely available
and meet all of these basic requirements.10 Furthermore,
the Martin-Arduengo formalism predicts the likely
formation of macrocyclic tetraiodonium salts 3 and 4
using 8-I-2 monocationic iodonium salts that have ex-
perimentally proven T-shaped geometry with a 90° bond
angle (Chart 2).11,12 Despite the importance of charged
(1) Frontiers in Supramolecular Organic Chemistry and Photochem-
istry; Schneider, H.-J ., Durr, H., Eds.; VCH: Weinheim, Germany,
1991. (b) Lehn, J .-M. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. Engl. 1988, 27, 89.
(2) (a) Pederson, C. J . J . Am. Chem. Soc. 1967, 89, 2495. (b)
Pederson, C. J . Aldrichim. Acta, 1971, 4, 1. (c) Synthetic Multidentate
Macrocyclic Compounds; Izatt, R. M., Christensen, J . J ., Eds.; Academic
Press: New York, 1978.
(3) (a) Pease, A. R.; J eppensen, J . O.; Stoddart, J . F.; Luo, Y.; Collier,
C. P.; Heath, J . R. Acc. Chem. Res. 2001, 34, 611. (b) Amabilino, D. B.;
Stoddart, J . F. Chem. Rev. 1995, 95, 2725.
(4) (a) Leininger, S.; Olenyuk, B.; Stang, P. J . Chem. Rev. 2000, 100,
853. (b) Olenyuk, B.; Whiteford, J . A.; Fechtenkotter, A.; Stang, P. J .
Nature 1999, 398, 796. (c) Stang, P. J .; Olenyuk, B. Acc. Chem. Res.
1997, 30, 502. (d) Fujita, M. Chem. Soc. Rev. 1998, 27, 417. (e) Fujita,
M.; Ogura, K. Coord. Chem. Rev. 1996, 148, 249.
(5) (a) Sauvage, J .-P. Acc. Chem. Res. 1998, 31, 611. (b) Nanosystems,
Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing and Computation; Drexler, K.,
Ed.; Wiley: New York, 1992. (c) Molecular Electronic Devices; Carter,
F. E., Ed.; Marcel Dekker: New York, 1987.
(6) (a) Host-Guest Complex Chemistry/ Macrocycles; Vo¨gtle, F.,
Webber, E., Eds.; Springer-Verlag: Berlin, 1985. (b) Inclusion Phe-
nomena and Molecular Recognition; Atwood, J . L., Ed.; Plenum: New
York, 1990.
(8) (a) Bissell, R. A.; Cordova, E.; Kaifer, A. E.; Stoddart, J . F. Nature
1994, 369, 133. (b) Balzani, V.; Gomez-Lopez, M.; Stoddart, J . F., Acc.
Chem. Res. 1998, 31, 405.
(9) (a) Collier, J . P.; Matterstei, G.; Wong, E. W.; Luo, Y.; Beverly,
K.; Sampaio, J .; Raymo, F. M.; Stoddart, J . F. Science 2000, 289, 1172.
(b) Molecular Catenanes, Rotaxanes and Knots; Sauvage, J.-P., Bucheck-
er, D., Eds.; Wiley-VCH: Weinheim, 1999. (c) Schill, G. Catenanes,
Rotaxanes and Knots; Academic Press: New York, 1971.
(10) (a) Stang, P. J .; Zhdankin, V. V. Chem. Rev. 1996, 96, 1123;
2002, 102, 2523. (b) Varvoglis, A. Hypervalent Iodine in Organic
Synthesis; Academic Press: London, 1997. (c) Wirth, T.; Hirt, U. H.
Synthesis 1999, 1271.
(11) Stang, P. J . Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. Engl. 1992, 31, 274. (b)
Stang, P. J .; Arif, A. M.; Crittell, C. M. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. Engl.
1990, 29, 281.
(7) (a) Bradley, D. Science 1993, 259, 890. (b) Amato, I. Science 1993,
260, 753. (c) Lehn, J .-M. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. Engl. 1990, 29, 1304.
(12) Perkins, C. W.; Martin, J . C.; Arduengo, A. J .; III; Alegria, A.;
Kochi, J . K. J . Am. Chem. Soc. 1980, 102, 7753.
10.1021/jo030246x CCC: $25.00 © 2003 American Chemical Society
Published on Web 10/30/2003
J . Org. Chem. 2003, 68, 9209-9213
9209