New bis-urea cage receptors for selective anion binding

The supramolecular chemistry laboratory at UMOLSYSTEM has synthesized and characterized a new bis-urea cage receptor for selective anion binding in solution.

The compound, published in Chemistry – An Asian Journal (2025), selectively binds the chloride ion with an association constant Ka = 2.4 × 10⁴ M⁻¹. The crystal structure, solved by X-ray diffraction, confirms the encapsulation geometry predicted by DFT calculations.

The synthetic methodology developed is scalable and adaptable to substrates with different functionalization.