Preparation, structures and preliminary host–guest studies of fluorinated syn-bis-quinoxaline molecular tweezers

A series of polycyclic frameworks with fluorinated syn-facial quinoxaline sidewalls has been prepared as potential molecular tweezers for electron-rich guest compounds. Our synthetic route to the cyclooctadiene-derived scaffolds 16a–d takes advantage of the facile isolation of a novel spirocyclic precursor 9b with the crucial syn-orientation of its two alkene moieties. The crystal structure of 16c displays two features typical of a molecular tweezer: inclusion of a solvent molecule in the molecular cleft and self-association of the self-complementary scaffolds. Furthermore, host–guest NMR studies of compound 16c in solution show chemical exchange between the unbound and bound electron-rich guest, N,N,N′,N′-tetramethyl-p-phenylenediamine.