Application of aromatic amide-derived atropisomers as chiral solvating agents for discrimination of optically active mandelic acid derivatives in 1 H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

Non-biaryl atropisomers and their stereochemistry have attracted much attentions in the past years. However, application of the non-biaryl atropisomers as chiral solvating agents is yet to be explored. In this work, four aromatic amide-derived atropisomeric phosphine ligands (hosts) were used as chiral solvating agents to recognize various mandelic acid derivatives (guests) in 1 H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. It is found that chiral center configurations of the four hosts have different effects on the enantiorecognition to the used guests. In addition, the host and guest interaction was further investigated by determination of the host-guest complex stoichiometry using the Job's method and density functional theory calculation, respectively. Moreover, chiral analysis accuracy of these hosts was evaluated through relationship between enantiomeric excess values of 4-chloromandelic acid provided by NMR and gravimetry, respectively.