Foldamer‐Derived Preorganized Bi‐ and Tri‐zinc Porphyrin Tweezers for a Pentafluorobenzene‐bearing Pyridine Guest: The Binding Pattern Study

By introducing two and three zinc porphyrin units to one side of hydrogen bonding‐induced aromatic amide foldamers, two new molecular tweezers 1 and 2 have been prepared. To explore new possible binding patterns, a leucine‐based pyridine ligand 3 that bears a pentafluorophenyl group has been prepared. UV‐Vis and 1 H NMR experiments reveal that 1 and 2 favorably complex one or two molecules of 3 . UV‐Vis titration experiments show that the apparent association constants of the complexes of the zinc porphyrin units of the two receptors and 3 are considerably higher than that of the complex between a simple control zinc porphyrin and 3 . In the presence of excess of 3 , the left zinc porphyrin unit of 1 and 2 can bind one more molecule of 3 , which is, however, stabilized only by the single Zn‐N coordination.