Simple squaramide receptors for highly efficient anion binding in aqueous media and transmembrane transport

Abstract

A family of acyclic squaramide receptors (L₁–L₅) have been synthesised with the aim to bind anions in a competitive solvent mixture and to evaluate how the presence of additional H-bond donor groups on the squaramide scaffold could affect the affinity towards anions and the transmembrane transport ability.