Science, Vol 244, Issue 4907, 938-943
Copyright © 1989 by American Association for the Advancement of Science
Molecular recognition and metal ion template synthesis
TJ McMurry,
KN Raymond,
and
PH Smith
Radiation Oncology Branch, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892.
Methods for the design and synthesis of ligands intended to be specific for a metal ion have been a recent chemical development. This article describes how this process can be inverted so that the specifics of the coordination environment around the metal ion can be used as a template in large-scale ligand synthesis. The synthesis of macrobicyclic ligands for ferric ion has been accomplished by using active esters of catechol ligands in which catecholate coordination to iron is a prelude to the organic chemical reactions that link the coordination subunits together into one ligand system surrounding a central metal ion coordination site. The lanthanide(III) ions, which are among the most labile metal ions known, have coordination numbers of 8 or higher, and thus their encapsulation into a macrobicyclic structure is a challenging problem. Lanthanide amine complexes have been used as metal templates in the synthesis of such macrobicyclic lanthanide complexes. There is evidence that such a complex is inert to exchange in aqueous solution.
