Abstract Chiral recognition behavior of the anionic AuI3CoIII2 complex with d-penicillaminate (d-pen), Au3Co2(d-pen)63– (13–), toward the cationic CoIII3 and CoIII4ZnII4 complexes with 2-aminoethanethiolate (aet), Co3(aet)63+ (23+) and Co4Zn4O(aet)126+ (36+), on crystallization is reported. Treatment of Na31 with the racemic (Δ)2/(Λ)2- 2(NO3)3 and (Δ)4/(Λ)4-3Br6 gave ionic crystals of 21 (I) and 312 (II), respectively. Single-crystal X-ray crystallography revealed that 13– anions form hydrogen-bonded frameworks with different chiral pockets that are best fitted for the accommodation of 23+ and 36+ cations in I and II, respectively. While both the (Δ)2 and (Λ)2 isomers of 23+ were equally incorporated in I, only the (Δ)4 isomer of 36+ was selectively incorporated in II.
Somsri et al. (Thu,) studied this question.