Crown ether-thiourea conjugates as ion transporters
Zhixing Zhao1, Bailing Tang1, Xiaosheng Yan1(), Xin Wu2(), Zhao Li1, Philip A. Gale2,3(), Yun-Bao Jiang1()
1. Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, The MOE Key Laboratory of Spectrochemical Analysis and Instrumentation, iChEM, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China 2. School of Chemistry (F11), The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia 3. The University of Sydney Nano Institute (Sydney Nano), The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
Na+, Cl‒ and K+ are the most abundant electrolytes present in biological fluids that are essential to the regulation of pH homeostasis, membrane potential and cell volume in living organisms. Herein, we report synthetic crown ether-thiourea conjugates as a cation/anion symporter, which can transport both Na+ and Cl− across lipid bilayers with relatively high transport activity. Surprisingly, the ion transport activities were diminished when high concentrations of K+ ions were present outside the vesicles. This unusual behavior resulted from the strong affinity of the transporters for K+ ions, which led to predominant partitioning of the transporters as the K+ complexes in the aqueous phase preventing the transporter incorporation into the membrane. Synthetic membrane transporters with Na+, Cl‒ and K+ transport capabilities may have potential biological and medicinal applications.
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