Facile synthesis and optical resolution of inherently chiral fluorescent calix[4]crowns: enantioselective recognition towards chiral leucinol

A series of tri-O-alkylated inherently chiral fluorescent calix[4]crowns in the cone conformations and a series of tetra-O-alkylated inherently chiral fluorescent calix[4]crowns in the partial cone conformations have been synthesized. By condensing with chiral auxiliary (S)-BINOL, the resulting diastereomers could be separated via preparative TLC. We found that the size of the crown moiety effected the separation of the diastereomers. Further, removal of the BINOL unit by hydrolysis furnished pairs of enantiomers with optical purity. Moreover, we found that a tetra-O-alkylated inherently chiral fluorescent calix[4]crown-6 in the partial cone conformation showed considerable enantioselective recognition capability towards chiral leucinol.