Supramolecular chemistry of chiral (1R,2S)-ephedrine confined within the AFI framework as a function of the synthesis conditions

In an attempt to promote chirality in AFI-based materials through spatial distributions of dopants, a systematic variation of the synthesis conditions of Mg-doped aluminophosphate-based microporous materials using chiral (1R,2S)-ephedrine as structure-directing agent has been carried out in order to understand the supramolecular chemistry and packing arrangements of these molecules when confined within the AFI channels. The formation of ephedrine dimers is strongly dependent on the synthesis conditions, especially the ephedrine/H2O ratio (higher concentrations of ephedrine favour the incorporation of dimers), crystallisation temperature (higher temperatures enhance the supramolecular aggregation) and Mg content (lower Mg contents increase the formation of dimers). The latter influence is explained by molecular simulations in terms of an electrostatic repulsion between the ammonium groups of closely-located adjacent dimers when a high density of protonated ephedrine molecules is required in order to compensate for the high Mg incorporation. In this situation, dimers are only incorporated if the system is forced by increasing the concentration of ephedrine in the gel and increasing the temperature. Our results show that a similar number of ephedrine molecules and Mg dopants are incorporated in the AFI unit cell because of charge-balancing purposes, suggesting a strong electrostatic interaction between both species with opposite charge.The authors thank the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Innovation MINECO (MAT2012-31127) for funding this research. LGH and BBM also acknowledge MINECO for ‘Ramón y Cajal’ (RYC-2012-11794) and predoctoral (BES-2013-064605) contracts, respectively.Peer reviewe