Specific recognition of fluoride anion using a metallamacrocycle incorporating a uranyl-salen unit

The design and synthesis of a novel fluoride receptor that uses a salen-complexed Lewis acidic uranyl center as the sole binding site is reported here. This receptor binds fluoride anions in DMSO with a high affinity constant (K 4 106 M1) and exhibits a negligible affinity (K o 10 M1) towards otherwise effective competitors, such as acetate, phosphate and cyanide anions