Investigation of homo- and heterodimer alkali metal cation complexes of resorc[4]arenes by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry.

Resorc[4]arenes are compounds with interesting properties, mainly because of their ability to form host-guest complexes with the guest located inside the cavity. The size of the guest limits the complexation, as shown by a competition experiment with tetraalkylammonium ions of different size. By electroscopy ionization tandem mass spectrometric experiments on resorc[4]arene heterodimers bearing an alkali metal ion as guest, it was found that there must be two different binding mechanisms for alkali metal ions with high surface charge density (Li(+) and Na(+)) on the one hand compared with those with a lower surface charge density on the other hand (K(+), Rb(+), Cs(+)). Copyright 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.