Synthesis of Novel Chiral Cholic Acid-Based Molecular Tweezers Containing Unsymmetrically Disubstituted Urea Units Using Microwave Irradiation

Abstract

An efficient procedure has been developed for the synthesis of new chiral cholic acid molecular tweezer artificial receptors by linking an unsymmetrically disubstituted urea to methyl deoxycholate via a carbonate chain using microwave irradiation. The structures of these new receptors were confirmed by 1H NMR, IR, MS spectra and elemental analysis. Their binding properties were examined by UV-Vis spectra titration. The preliminary results indicate that these molecular tweezers not only recognised anions, but also showed good enantioselectivity for D-amino acid methyl esters.