Chiroptical Sensing Of Amino Acids, Amines, Amino Alcohols, Alcohols And Terpenes With Pi-Extended Acyclic Cucurbiturils

The efficiency and scope of two acyclic pi-wall extended cucurbiturils, M2 and M3, exhibiting rapidly interconverting helical conformers for chiroptical sensing of amines, amino acids, alcohols, and terpenes at micromolar concentrations in water is evaluated. The formation of 1 : 1 host-guest complexes results in spontaneous induction of circular dichroism signals that can be used for accurate determination of the absolute configuration and enantiomeric composition of the analyte based on a simple mix-and-measure protocol.