Cooperative anion binding and electrochemical sensing by modular podands

A series of podands based on two or three hydrogen bonding “arms” situated in mutually ortho, meta, or para relationships about an aryl core have been prepared, and their affinities for simple inorganic anions were measured. Of the two-arm hosts the meta compound and to a lesser extent the ortho host exhibit a cooperative anion binding effect. The two arms function essentially independently in the para derivative. The mutually meta three-arm host shows dramatically enhanced cooperative binding. Conformational changes within the meta two-arm host result in significantly enhanced electrochemical anion sensing compared with the more conformationally rigid three-arm host.