Transport of chloride ion through phospholipid bilayers mediated by synthetic ionophores

Chloride has emerged as one of the most vigorously studied ions that occur in nature. A continuing motivation for the study of chloride transport lies in the pathological conditions that relate to or involve chloride transport. The goal of the organic, biological, or supramolecular chemist, thus, is to understand binding strength, binding dynamics, binding selectivity, transport selectivity and dynamics of chloride transporters. Various successful anion transporters or channels are now known, although detailed characterization and elaboration in most cases is ongoing. Several of these synthetic systems will be discussed in this review as we focus our discussion on the efforts to develop artificial transporters for chloride anions.