Affinity capillary electrophoretic study of K+/Na+ selectivity of hexaarylbenzene-based polyaromatic receptor

Affinity capillary electrophoretic (ACE) study has proved the selectivity of hexaarylbenzene-based polyaromatic receptor (R) for K+ ion over Na+ ion. The apparent binding constants of the R complexes with K+ and Na+ ions were determined from the dependence of effective electrophoretic mobility of R on the concentration of the above alkali metal ions in the background electrolyte using a non-linear regression analysis. The apparent binding constants (Kb) of the K-R+ and Na–R+ complexes in methanolic medium were evaluated as log Kb = 3.20 ± 0.22 for the K–R+ complex, and log Kb≅−0.7 for the Na–R+ complex.