Behavior of a Dynamic Covalent Library Driven by Combined Pd(II) and Biphasic Effectors for Metal Transport between Phases

In this work, we report the effect of Pd(II) as chemical effector on an acylhydrazone-based dynamic covalent library (DCL) in biphasic systems (water/chloroform). The constituents of the DCL are self-built and distributed in the two phases, two of them are lipophilic enough to play the role of a carrier agent that may transfer Pd(II) from the aqueous phase to the organic phase. Upon the addition of Pd(II), the DCL of components exhibits a strong amplification of the constituent that is the most adapted to stabilize Pd(II) in chloroform as well as its agonist in water. We demonstrated that this evolution is driven by the combination of the interaction of the DCL with Pd(II) and the presence of the two phases. This study paves the way to a novel approach for liquid/liquid extraction and metal recovery by means of adaptive extractant species generated in situ by a DCL.