Inclusion of two different guest molecules within a rationally designed macrocyclic boronic ester in organic solvent.

The inclusion of two different guest molecules in a macrocyclic boronic ester in organic solvent utilizing only π-stacking interactions has been successfully realized. For this purpose, a new tetrol which has an appropriate distance between two 1,2-diol units for the inclusion of two aromatic molecules is designed and synthesized. Simple mixing of the new tetrol with 2,7-pyrenediboronic acid in the presence of pyrene-4,5-quinone efficiently affords the desired macrocyclic boronic ester, which is found by (1)H NMR spectroscopy, ESI-MS, and isothermal titration calorimetry studies to include one molecule each of a dinitronaphthalimide derivative and pyrene. Furthermore, inclusion of two planar molecules within the macrocyclic boronic ester is revealed by X-ray analysis.