New Chiral Calixarene Derivatives: Syntheses and Their Chiral Recognition Toward Amino Acids by UV-Vis Spectroscopy

Three novel types of chiral calixarene derivatives 5, 8, and 10 were designed and synthesized by introducing chiral units to parent calixarenes. Their chiralities were confirmed by rotational analysis. Chiral recognition properties of these host compounds towards L- and D-threonine were studied by UV-Vis spectroscopy. The results indicated that calixarene derivatives 5 and 8 exhibited good chiral recognition capabilities toward L- or D-threonine. Although calixarene derivative 10 had no evident chiral recognition ability, the supramolecules of calixarene derivative 10 with L- or D-threonine showed a hypochromic effect or hyperchromic effect respectively. Therefore, calixarene derivative 10 might serve as a good chiral UV-indicator.