Strain‐Induced Reactivity in the Dynamic Covalent Chemistry of Macrocyclic Imines

The displacement of molecular structures from their thermodynamically most stable state by imposition of various types of electronic and conformational constraints generates highly strained entities that tend to release the accumulated strain energy by undergoing either structural changes or chemical reactions. The latter case amounts to strain‐induced reactivity (SIR) that may enforce specific chemical transformations. A particular case concerns dynamic covalent chemistry which may present SIR, whereby reversible reactions are activated by coupling to a high‐energy state. We herewith describe such a dynamic covalent chemical (DCC) system involving the reversible imine formation reaction. It is based on the formation of strained macrocyclic bis‐imine metal complexes in which the macrocyclic ligand is in a high energy form enforced by the coordination of the metal cation. Subsequent demetallation generates a highly strained free macrocycle that releases its accumulated strain energy by hydrolysis and reassembly into a resting state. Specifically, the metal‐templated condensation of a dialdehyde with a linear diamine leads to a bis‐imine 1+1]‐macrocyclic complex in which the macrocyclic ligand is in a coordination‐enforced strained conformation. Removal of the metal cation by a competing ligand yields a highly reactive 1+1]‐macrocycle, which then undergoes hydrolysis to transient non‐cyclic aminoaldehyde species, which then recondense to a strain‐free 2+2]‐macrocyclic resting state. The process can be monitored by ¹H NMR spectroscopy. Energy differences between different conformational states have been evaluated by Hartree–Fock (HF) computations. One may note that the stabilisation of high‐energy molecular forms by metal ion coordination followed by removal of the latter, offers a general procedure for producing out‐of‐equilibrium molecular states, the fate of which may then be examined, in particular when coupled to dynamic covalent chemical processes.