Allosteric Guest Binding in Chiral Zirconium(IV) Double Decker Porphyrin Cages

Chiral zirconium(IV) double cage sandwich complex Zr(1)₂ has been synthesized in one step from porphyrin cage H₂1. Zr(1)₂ was obtained as a racemate, which was resolved by HPLC and the enantiomers were isolated in >99.5 % ee. Their absolute configurations were assigned on the basis of X-ray crystallography and circular dichroism spectroscopy. Vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) experiments on the enantiomers of Zr(1)₂ revealed that the chirality around the zirconium center is propagated throughout the whole cage structure. The axial conformational chirality of the double cage complex displayed a VCD fingerprint similar to the one observed previously for a related chiral cage compound with planar and point chirality. Zr(1)₂ shows fluorescence, which is quenched when viologen guests bind in its cavities. The binding of viologen and dihydroxybenzene derivatives in the two cavities of Zr(1)₂ occurs with negative allostery, the cooperativity factors α (=4 K₂/K₁) being as low as 0.0076 for the binding of N,N’-dimethylviologen. These allosteric effects are attributed to a pinching of the second cavity as a result of guest binding in the first cavity.