Second-generation supramolecular dendrimer with a defined structure due to orthogonal binding

A second-generation supramolecular dendrimer has been prepared by orthogonal multiple hydrogen bonding. In the first (inner) recognition domain, the interaction of one bis-isocyanuric acid (25) with two branching units (21) that carry complementary Hamilton receptors has been exploited. In the second (outer) generation, the two ADDA (A=hydrogen-bond acceptor, D=donor) receptors of each branching unit (21) have bound complementary DAAD units (4). The problem of limited solubility of the building blocks has been overcome by the introduction of branched ethylhexyl residues and by the use of flexible alkylene or oligo(ethylene glycol) linking chains. The orthogonal binding of the two hydrogen-bonding pairs was elucidated by chemical induced shift NMR titrations, which proved that the two pairs, isocyanuric acid with the Hamilton receptor and ADDA with DAAD, bind preferentially. The formation of the supramolecular self-assembled 1:2:4 dendrimer with a molecular weight of 5065 g mol(-1) was investigated by diffusion NMR spectroscopy.