1994 Volume 52 Issue 11 Pages 912-922
In view of the ever expanding repertoire of Lewis acids available as proton substitutes in current synthetic organic methodology, our goal was to engineer an artificial proton substitute possessing unique topology; effective as an artificial enzyme for chemical reactions, by harnessing the high reactivity of the metal atom towards oxygen and nitrogen. Such a concept was realized by examining the recognition ability of specially designed metal receptors for various oxygen- and nitrogen-containing substrates.