Trans-9,10-Dihydro-9,10-ethanoanthracene-11,12-dicarboxylic Acid: Remarkable Host Selectivities in the Presence of Mixtures of Anisole and Bromoanisole Isomers

Abstract

In this work, trans-9,10-dihydro-9,10-ethanoanthracene-11,12-dicarboxylic acid (DED), a host compound that formed complexes with anisole (ANI), 2-bromoanisole (2-BA), and 4-bromoanisole (4-BA), was revealed to possess a remarkable affinity (93.1–98.6%) for 4-BA when recrystallized from any mixtures containing this guest species, be these binary (ANI/4-BA, 2-BA/4-BA, or 3-BA/4-BA), ternary (ANI/2-BA/4-BA, ANI/3-BA/4-BA, or 2-BA/3-BA/4-BA), or quaternary (ANI/2-BA/3-BA/4-BA) in nature. Furthermore, this striking host selectivity persisted even in binary solutions containing low concentrations of 4-BA (18–25%); near-complete selectivities in favor of 4-BA were observed here too. Single crystal X-ray diffraction analyses showed that the favored guest species, 4-BA, was the only one to experience short intermolecular contacts, through its phenyl ring, with the host molecule’s carbonyl oxygen atom and the host hydrogen atom on the carbon bearing the second carboxylic acid group. Furthermore, ANI and 2-BA were accommodated in wide open channels, while the guest accommodation type for 4-BA was significantly more constricted. Thermal analyses confirmed that 2(DED)·3(ANI) and DED·2-BA, having the disfavored guests in open channels, were unstable at room temperature, while the preferred guest species, 4-BA, in its decidedly constricted channels, was only released at significantly higher temperatures (116.8 °C). Therefore, by employing host–guest chemistry strategies, DED has the ability to purify and separate any of these 4-BA-containing mixtures, a distinct advantage over fractional distillations which are cumbersome owing to physical property similarities of 2-, 3-, and 4-BA.