Chiral Recognition By Flexible Coordination Polymers Of Ag+ With A Cysteine-Based Chiral Thiol Ligand That Bears A Binding Site

We report a new scheme for chiral recognition using coordination polymers of Ag+ with a chiral thiol ligand that contains a binding group. N-Benzoyl-L-cysteine ethyl ester equipped with a boronic acid group at the para position of the phenyl ring forms coordination polymers with Ag+ in alkaline aqueous solutions that exhibit excellent selectivity toward a D-glucose enantiomer over Lglucose, while the coordination polymers from the D-cysteine-based thiol ligand are specific for L-glucose. It is assumed that a conformation change occurs upon interaction of a saccharide molecule with the polymeric chain receptor, for which the next binding is promoted, leading to the highly effective chiral recognition, despite the flexible nature of the polymeric receptor.