Hydrophobic cyclic dipeptides as M⁺/Cl^- carriers

Transmembrane ion-pair co-transport using synthetic transporters is non-trivial. Herein, cyclic dipeptide ion-carriers with dangling ester motifs to bind cations and amide-NH to bind anions are reported. The pendant lipophilic norbornene units aid in membrane insertion to achieve MCl co-transport with this simple design.