Complexation of Volatile Organic Molecules from the Gas Phase with Cucurbituril and β-Cyclodextrin

Abstract

The first results about the complexing ability of the supramolecular ligand cucurbituril with different volatile organic molecules from the gas phase are presented. The behaviour of cucurbituril is similar to that of β-cyclodextrin. The capacity of both ligands was determined with toluene. Columns filled with β-cyclodextrin and cucurbituril have a capacity of 0.50 and 0.42 mol toluene per mol ligand, respectively. The extraction of volatile molecules is not limited to toluene, also several other organic molecules are complexed from the gas phase. The fluorescence spectra of the solid naphthaline and aniline complexes with cucurbituril and β-cyclodex-trin are presented. Comparing the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) curves of cucurbituril, the cucurbituril toluene complex and silica gel with adsorbed toluene shows that a complexation and no adsorption takes place.