Macroscopic observations of molecular recognition: discrimination of the substituted position on the naphthyl group by polyacrylamide gel modified with β-cyclodextrin.

Macroscopic molecular recognition observations were realized using polyacrylamide-based gels modified with α-cyclodextrin (α-CD), β-cyclodextrin (β-CD), 1-naphthylmethyl (1Np), and 2-naphthylmethyl (2Np) moieties, which are denoted as αCD(x)-gel, βCD(x)-gel, 1Np(y)-gel, and 2Np(y)-gel, where x and y indicate the mol % of CD and Np moieties, respectively. The αCD(5)-gel did not adhere to either the 1Np(5)-gel or 2Np(5)-gel, whereas the βCD(5)-gel interacted with both to form alternating or checkered assemblies. Although the difference in the association constants of β-CD for the model polymers was small, the βCD(x)-gel successfully discriminated between 1Np(y)-gel and 2Np(y)-gel at the appropriate x and y.