Chiral Macrocycles as Reagents and Catalysts

Ionophores, whether of natural or synthetic origin, encapsulate their ionic “guests” using noncovalent bonding. This encapsulation process resembles, at least superficially, the bonding of a substrate by an enzyme-active site. The analogy to enzymes can be extended further if the ionophore is provided with functional groups that can react with a suitable guest molecule bound in the cavity of the ionophore. We have embedded in the periphery of a macrocycle a 1,4-dihydropyridine, a mimic of the coenzyme NADH. The macrocycle, in addition to having (weak) ionophoric properties, is chiral. The strategy has led to compounds that react as artificial hydrogenases and which are capable of distinguishing, in a predictable fashion, between the prochiral faces of suitable carbonyl substrates. Ancillary developments from this approach have been many. A remarkably general method for the preparation of a wide variety of macrocycles has been developed which depends on some remarkable chemical idiosyncrasies of the cesium ion. In attempts to exploit the chemical possibilities of these macrocycles, unusual chemistry, possibly relevant to the action of the enzyme, 3-phosphoglyceraldehyde dehydrogenase, has been uncovered. In a similar vein, study of macrocycles has led to variants of the aldol condensation on chiral templates. Finally, catalytic CC bond formation mediated by transition metals is revealed to be an area in which chiral macrocycles can play a useful role by acting as chiral ligands for the transition metal.