Polarized Naphthalimide CH Donors Enhance Cl^– Binding within an Aryl-Triazole Receptor

Abstract

The dipolar character of 1,8-naphthalimide together with polarization of the C⁴–H and C⁵–H donors has been utilized in receptor <b>1</b> to effectively bind chloride alongside triazole and phenylene units. The Cl^– binding strength of <b>1</b> shows that the naphthalimide provides greater anion stabilization than an unactivated phenylene, and DFT calculations show that its collinear donor array can be a “urea-like” analog for CH···anion interactions