Syntheses of chiral homoazacalix[4]arenes incorporating amino acid residues: Molecular recognition for racemic quaternary ammonium ions

Chiral calixarene analogues incorporating amino acid residues into the macrocyclic rings were prepared from the cyclization reactions of bis(chloromethyl)phenol-formaldehyde tetramer with amino acid methyl ester in moderate yields. The macrocycles form a chiral concavity, which is induced by the chiral transmission from the point chirality of the amino acid residues to the phenol-formaldehyde tetramer unit. The macrocycles have the cavity pi-basic enough to include the quaternary ammonium ion due to the cation-pi interaction and can serve as a shift reagent for racemic ammonium ions during H-1 NMR analysis.