title: Manifesting Subtle Differences of Neutral Hydrophilic Guest Isomers in a Molecular Container by Phase Transfer.
abstract: Achieving strong host-guest interactions between synthetic hosts and hydrophilic guests in solution is challenging because solvation effects overwhelm other effects. To resolve this issue, we transferred complexes of cucurbit[7]uril (CB[7]) and monosaccharides to the gas phase and report here their intrinsic host-guest chemistry in the absence of solvation effects. It was observed that effective host-guest interactions in the gas phase mediated by ammonium cations allow the differentiation of the monosaccharide isomers in complex with CB[7] upon vibrational excitation. The potential of the unique observation was extended to a quantitative supramolecular analytical method for the monosaccharide guests. The combination of host-guest chemistry and phase transfer presented in this study is an effective approach to overcome current limitations in supramolecular chemistry.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Korea University, Seoul, 02841, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hyun Hee L
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Korea University, Seoul, 02841, Republic of Korea.|Department of Chemistry, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, 37673, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jong Wha
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, 37673, Republic of Korea.|Center for Self-Assembly and Complexity, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Pohang, 37673, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Yoonjung
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.affiliation: Center for Self-Assembly and Complexity, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Pohang, 37673, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Young Ho
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Ko
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, 37673, Republic of Korea. kkim@postech.ac.kr.|Center for Self-Assembly and Complexity, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Pohang, 37673, Republic of Korea. kkim@postech.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Kimoon
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Korea University, Seoul, 02841, Republic of Korea. hughkim@korea.ac.kr.|Center for Self-Assembly and Complexity, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Pohang, 37673, Republic of Korea. hughkim@korea.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Hugh I
authors.initials: HI
authors.lastname: Kim
keywords: cucurbit[7]uril; gas-phase chemistry; host-guest systems; mass spectrometry; monosaccharides