Acyclic phosphonate hosts for the detection of antimicrobial medicines

Abstract

Two novel phosphonate-substituted cucurbiturils have been synthesized and characterized. The inherent solubilities of the phosphonate hosts were proved to be higher than those of sulfonate analogues. Benefiting from the interaction between phosphonate and guanidium, the phosphonate hosts exhibited a high affinity towards guests like phenformin, and chlorhexidine. In addition, the phosphonate hosts displayed circular dichroism signals in response to the chiral levofloxacin. Overall, the novel phosphonate cucurbiturils have great potential to be utilized for fluorescence and chiroptical sensing of antimicrobial agents.