Tripodal trisamides based on nicotinic and picolinic acid derivatives

A number of polydentate arylamide ligands have been prepared by coupling various acyclic tripodal or linear polyamines with derivatives of nicotinic and picolinic acids. Two synthetic procedures were utilized; tris{[(2-hydroxynicotinyl)carbonyl]-2-aminoethyl}amine (H3NICTREN) was prepared by Method A, the HOSu/DCC method, and the other arylamides in this study were prepared by Method B, the CDI method. Method A involved the reaction of N-hydroxysuccinimide with 2-hydroxynicotinic acid (in the presence of dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCC) as a dehydrative coupling reagent) to form the succinimide ester, followed by reaction with TREN to yield H3NICTREN. Method B involved reaction of a carboxylic acid (2-hydroxynicotinic, 3-hydroxypicolinic, nicotinic, or picolinic acids) with carbonyldiimidazole (CDI) to form the N-acylimidazolide, followed by reaction with the amine (TREN, TAME, spermidine, or TRPN) to yield the desired arylamide. The X-ray structure of 1,1,1-tris{[(3-hydroxypicolinyl)carbonyl]-2-aminomethyl}ethane (H3PICTAME) was determined; crystals of H3PICTAME are monoclinic, a = 10.257(2), b = 15.572(3), c = 15.208(2) Å, β = 96.124(15)°, Z = 4, space group P21/a. The structure was solved by direct methods and refined by full-matrix least-squares procedures to R = 0.041 and Rw = 0.038 for 2506 reflections with I >= 3 sigma (I). In the solid state, H3PICTAME contains an extensive hydrogen-bonding network, with eight intra- and one intermolecular H-bonds per molecule; the ligand is partially preorganized for metal ion chelation. The acid dissociation constants of H3NICTREN and those of 1,1,1-tris{[(2-hydroxynicotinyl)carbonyl]-2- aminomethyl}ethane (H3NICTAME) have been determined; pKa1 = 11.2 (10.68), pKa2 = 10.7 (10.58), pKa3 = 10.0 (9.71), and pKa4 = 6.25 for H3NICTREN (H3NICTAME); the high phenolic pKa's are consistent with the hydrogen bonding observed in the solid state.Key words: arylamide, hydrogen bonding, preorganization.