Chiroptical properties of dithia[3.3]cyclophanes composed of anthracene and pyridine/pyridinium moieties: A combined experimental and theoretical study.

Circular dichroisms (CDs) of neutral and protonated [3.3]anthracenopyridinophane (1 and 1-H ) were investigated experimentally and theoretically. Introducing an anthracene moiety with extended conjugation affected the cyclophane structure with the bent angles being appreciably  reduced from those of parent [3.3]pyridinophane. The Cotton effects (CEs) observed at the B band for both 1 and 1-H were fairly strong and apparently bisignate, which, however, turned out not to be a simple exciton couplet but to be composed of multiple transitions. In contrast, the CEs were much weaker in the L band region. The spectral changes upon protonation were less significant compared with the parent pyridinophane, being dominated by the local transitions of anthracene. Nevertheless, the CD spectra of 1 and 1-H were well reproduced by theoretical calculations to allow us an unambiguous absolute configuration determination of the first high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) elute (from Chiralcel IB column) as S . The transannular interactions between the anthracene and pyridine/pyridinium units were examined by UV-vis and fluorescence spectroscopy to reveal a charge-transfer (CT) band in the low-energy region, particularly for 1-H . Despite the comparable CT interactions, the CE at the CT band was much stronger for the anthracenopyridinophane than for the parent pyridinophane, affording an anisotropy (g) factor as large as 4 × 10 .