Molecular “Pincer” from a Diimidazolium Salt: A Study of Binding Ability

What is it about?

In this work we studied a very simple diimidazolium salt acting as a molecular pincer for anion binding. We determined the association constants of this salts with a wide range of anions, invluding halides carboxylate and dicarboxylates. We carried out this investigation by 1H-NMR spectroscopy measurements in acetonitrile solutions, elucidating which structural features of the anions give rise to the highest affinity.

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Why is it important?

Our diimidazolium salts displays very good binding ability towards carboxylate anions. Remarkably, despite its simple structure, it shows high selectivity to dicarboxylates over monocarboxylate anion. This behavior is also notables since is much less frequent than the opposite one.