A tripodal tris-selenourea anion transporter matches the activity of its thio- analogue but shows distinct selectivity

07 February 2019

We report the synthesis of a tripodal tris-selenourea transporter scaffold. The Cl− and NO− 3 transport activity of the compound has been compared extensively with the analogous oxo- and thiourea compounds. We found that the selenourea demonstrates remarkably similar transport efficacy and mechanistic properties to the equivalent thiourea, but demonstrates flipped selectivity for Cl− over NO−3.