Complexation and enantioselectivity of sulfur/selenium-substituted uranyl-salophens with R/S-chiral lactone for RRS/SSR-3, 5-Dimethyl-2-(3-fluorophenyl)-2-morpholinols

In order to explore the enantioselectivity of uranyl-salophens to chiral molecules, the newly designed receptors of Λ-type configuration sulfur/selenium-substituted uranyl-salophens with R/S -chiral δ-lactone were used to selectively coordinate and recognize a pair of enantiomers of RRS/SSR-3,5-dimethyl-2-(3-fluorophenyl)-2-morpholinols as guests based on the density functional theory calculations. The results indicated that the substituent effects of R/S -asymmetry sulfur/selenium-substituted uranyl-salophens significantly affected the structures and properties of coordination compounds, and the R -type receptors have higher enantioselectivity for the chiral guests than the S -type receptors both in vacuum and in solvents water, acetone and toluene except the R/S -selenium-substituted uranyl-salophen in water.