Weak hydrogen bonding as a basis for concentration-dependent guest selectivity by a cyclophane host

Crystalline inclusion complexes between the cyclophane I and three isomers of picoline and lutidine were grown and their properties and structures were studied by X-ray analysis, thermal gravimetry (TG), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). In competition experiments, the cyclophane host, which by itself is only able to form weak C-H...acceptor hydrogen bonds, is able to discriminate between the different picoline or lutidine isomers, although in some cases a strong concentration dependence of the prefer red isomer is observed. In the threecomponent experiments, inclusion of 4-picoline is strongly favored when X(4-picoline) > 0.35 - 0.39. Very similar results were obtained in the lutidine series. The fact that 2,4-lutidine is favored when X(2,4-lutidine) > 0.2 indicates that the host prefers the isomer with the methyl group in 4-position relative to the nitrogen atom. The selectivities observed can be explained based on the assignment of the inclusion complexes to different adduct classes. In the case of the picoline isomers, the preference of 4-picoline was in good agreement with the calculated lattice energies for this series. The present work also shows that caution is advisable when deducing selectivity of crystalline inclusion compounds from guest competition experiments.