2,6,9-Trioxabicyclo[3.3.1]nona-3,7-dienes and 2,4,6,8-Tetraoxaadamantanes: Novel Chiral Spacer Units in Macrocyclic Polyethers

The unusual chiral heterocyclic systems, trioxabicyclo[3.3.1]nona-3,7-dienes ("bridged bisdioxines"), are incorporated as novel spacer molecules into macrocyclic polyether ring systems of various sizes (8, 9 as well as 11-15) by cyclocondensation reaction of the bisacid chloride 4b or bisesters 6,7 and 10, with several ethylene glycols. The 2:2 macrocycles 12-14 are obtained in approximately 50:50 mixtures of diastereomers. These conclusions are mainly based on HPLC data presented in Table I as well as X-ray analyses of (1R,5R)-8c (space group Pbca, a =10.163(3) Å, b =18.999(4) Å, c =36.187(10) Å, V =6987(3) ų , Z =8, d _calc =1.218 g cm^{m 3}, 6974 reflections, R =0.0553), meso/rac-11 (space group P1 ¥ , a =10.472(5) Å, b=16.390(5) Å, c =17.211(5) Å, f =98.69(2)°, g =93.04(2)°, n =98.52(2)°, V =2879.3(18) Å 3 , Z =2, d _calc =1.173 g cm m 3 , 11,162 reflections, R =0.0945) and meso-12 (space group P2₁/c, a =9.927(2), b =18.166(3), c =17.820(3) Å, g =96.590(10)°, V =3192.3(10) Å 3 , Z =4, D _c =1.109 g cm^{m 3}, 3490 reflections, R =0.0646). The 1:1 macrocycles 8b,c are also formed by intramolecular transesterification of the open-chain bisesters 7b,c and their formation is favored by the use of metal ions as templates. The bridged bisdioxine moieties in 8b and 12 are converted into the corresponding chiral tetraoxaadamantane spacers to afford macrocycles 16 and 17. Preliminary metal ion complexation studies with selected species (8c, 11-14) were also performed.