Affinity capillary electrophoretic study of K+/Na+ selectivity of hexaarylbenzene-based polyaromatic receptor

Affinity capillary electrophoretic (ACE) study has proved the selectivity of hexaarylbenzene-based polyaromatic receptor (R) for K⁺ ion over Na⁺ ion. The apparent binding constants of the R complexes with K⁺ and Na⁺ ions were determined from the dependence of effective electrophoretic mobility of R on the concentration of the above alkali metal ions in the background electrolyte using a non-linear regression analysis. The apparent binding constants (K_b) of the K-R⁺ and Na–R⁺ complexes in methanolic medium were evaluated as log K_b = 3.20 ± 0.22 for the K–R⁺ complex, and log K_b??0.7 for the Na–R⁺ complex.