Molecular tweezers in nitroaromatic sensing

Apart from their destructive force, nitroaromatic compounds also are toxic and harmful to humans and the environment. While a number of plants, bacteria and fungi produce nitroaromatic compounds, the largest part of these compounds found in the environment stems from industrial uses. Although nitroaromatic compounds can be detected in a laboratory, the corresponding equipment may be too delicate and/or not mobile enough to be used in the field where smaller devices are more suitable. Sensor-systems relying on the interaction or reaction of nitroaromatics with other molecules are of interest (notable for hand-held devices) because of ease of detection, simple material handling and short response time. Molecular tweezers constitute a promising class of molecules that could be able of molecular recognition of trace quantities of nitroaromatic compounds. In this thesis, the synthesis of different designed molecular tweezers is presented as well as their sensing properties in the presence of a guest, as determined from 1H-NMR titrations. The results are then interpreted in relation to molecular structure, with the aid of computational calculations.