Anion-templated synthesis is no longer limited to electrically charged catenanes and rotaxanes. Using doubly charged sulfate as a template and diamidocarbazoles as high affinity anion-binding building blocks, we obtained a fluorescent catenane with outstanding sulfate sensing capabilities. The catenane was shown ot bind sulfate very strongly, even in partially aqueous solutions. Moreover, we have shown that the sulfate anion may be considered as a pH-switchable template and hence it can be used to switch catenane between two significantly different states.
Chem. Sci., 2024, DOI: 10.1039/D3SC05086F
![Graphical abstract: Anion-templated synthesis of a switchable fluorescent [2]catenane with sulfate sensing capability](https://pubs.rsc.org/en/Image/Get?imageInfo.ImageType=GA&imageInfo.ImageIdentifier.ManuscriptID=D3SC05086F&imageInfo.ImageIdentifier.Year=2024)