Compounds Derived from 9,9-Dialkylfluorenes: Syntheses, Crystal Structures and Initial Binding Studies (Part II).

New representatives of 2,4,7-trisubstituted 9,9-dialkyl-9H-fluorenes were prepared and used for crystallographic investigations as well as initial binding studies towards metal ions and carbohydrates. The binding studies, which included 1 H NMR spectroscopic titrations and fluorescence measurements, demonstrated the ability of the tested fluorene-based compounds to act as complexing agents for ionic and neutral substrates. Depending on the nature of the subunits of the fluorene derivatives, "turn on" or "turn off" fluorescent chemosensors can be developed. Compounds composed of 4,6-dimethylpyridin-2-yl-aminomethyl moieties have the potential to be used as sensitive "turn-on" chemosensors for some metal ions.

Crystal structure of 9,9-di-ethyl-9H-fluorene-2,4,7-tricarbaldehyde.

The title compound, C20H18O3, crystallizes in the space group P21/c with one mol-ecule in the asymmetric unit of the cell. The fluorene skeleton is nearly planar and the crystal structure is composed of mol-ecular layers extending parallel to the (302) plane. Within a layer, one formyl oxygen atom participates in the formation of a Carene-H⋯O bond, which is responsible for the formation of an inversion symmetric supra-molecular motif of graph set R 2 2(10). A second oxygen atom is involved in an intra-molecular Carene-H⋯O hydrogen bond and is further connected with a formyl hydrogen atom of an adjacent mol-ecule. A Hirshfeld surface analysis indicated that the most important contributions to the overall surface are from H⋯H (46.9%), O⋯H (27.9%) and C⋯H (17.8%) inter-actions.

Syntheses of Acyclic and Macrocyclic Compounds Derived from 9,9-Diethylfluorene (Part I).

A series of new 9,9-diethylfluorenes consisting of three side-arms each bearing a heterocyclic, bis(carboxymethyl)amino, bis(carbamoylmethyl)amino, bis(ethoxycarbonylmethyl)amino or an amino group were prepared on the basis of 2,4,7-tris(bromomethyl)-9,9-diethylfluorene. Imidazolyl, benzimidazolyl, pyrazolyl, pyrrolyl, 1,3-dioxoisoindolyl and pyridinium groups were taken into account as heterocyclic units, attached to the aromatic skeleton via -CH2-, -CH2NHCH2- or -CH2N=CH- linkers. In addition to the seventeen 2,4,7-trisubstituted 9,9-diethylfluorenes, two macrocyclic compounds were prepared on the basis of 2,7-bis(aminomethyl)-9,9-diethylfluorene. The excellent yield of the macrocyclization reaction is worth a special mention. Both the acyclic and the macrocyclic fluorene-based compounds have, among other things, the potential to act as artificial receptors for different substrates in analogy to the known receptors consisting of a benzene or biphenyl core.