Ammonium based anion receptors

Selective anion recognition has been a tremendous challenge to chemists over the decades. However, with the advent of the concepts inherent in 'supramolecular chemistry,' the field now flourishes. Of the major types of receptors, polyamines have been studied widely as anion hosts by a number of researchers. Both electrostatic interactions and hydrogen bonds between protonated amines and the anion guests govern the binding in these systems. Exceptions to this rule are found in the quaternary ammonium systems, which utilize primarily electrostatic interactions and topological complementarity for binding purposes. This review focuses only on amine-based hosts, and is divided into acyclic and macrocyclic categories, the latter of which are based on cyclic dimension. The resulting four categories are: acyclic, monocyclic, bicyclic, and polycyclic. Within the major categories, binding is discussed according to the nature of the anion target, i.e. 'simple' inorganic anions, organic anions, and anionic metal complexes. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.