Lipophilic polyamine and polyamide macrocycles for membrane transport of amino acid esters and related cations

Abstract

A variety of polyamine and polyamide macrocycles have been shown to be new and excellent cation-carriers for the transport of amino acid ester salts. Their transport properties were largely different from those of common polyether macrocycles, and essentially controlled by factors such as the natures of donor sites incorporated, ring sizes of macrocyclic systems, and hydrophobicities of co-transported anions. By appropriate choice of these factors, selective transport of various amino acid derivatives was successfully realized.