A Molecular Modeling for the Complexation of Cyclobis(paraquat-p-phenylene) with Substituted Benzenes and Biphenyls

The molecular recognition of cyclobis(paraquat-p-phenylene), 14+, has drawn great attention recently, due to its important applications in the design and synthesis of electrochemically and chemically switchable rotaxanes, photoactive rotaxanes, and other molecular devices1. Usually, this type of molecular recognition was investigated with the methods including X-ray, NMR, UV, and IR. However, since these methods usually have difficulties in providing a detailed understanding of the energeti…

A Molecular Modeling for the Complexation of Cyclobis(paraquat-p-phenylene) with Substituted Benzenes and Biphenyls

Molecular orbital PM3 calculation was performed on the complexation of cyclobis(para-quat-p-phenylene) with a number of 1,4-disubstituted benzenes and biphenyl derivatives. A fair correlation was found between the PM3 calculated binding energies and the experimental ones, which enabled the PM3 calculation to predict the experimental binding energies for a number of important complexes. A good structure-activity relationship was also found between the PM3 calculated binding energies and the substituent molar refraction Rm and Hammett σ constants, indicating that the van der Waals force and the electronic interactions constituted the major driving forces for the complexation of cyclobis(paraquat-p-phenylene).