Complexation and phase transfer of perrhenate and pertechnetate with guanidium hosts

Noncovalent binding of pertechnetate may be of considerable interest as a new approach to labelling organic compounds with technetium without any reduction step, and for removal of pertechnetate as an environmental contaminant. Effective and selective complexation of pertechnetate should be realisable on the basis of molecular assembled supramolecular receptors that can provide multi-point fixation of tetrahedral anion pertechnetate as shown in the figure.

This paper reports on complexation experiments of pertechnetate and its nonradioactive congener perrhenate using different guanidinium compounds. The characterisation of these Tc(VII) and Re(VII) complexes are supported by X-ray crystal structures, TLC, infrared and NMR spectra. Liquid-liquid extraction studies are performed in order to monitor the influence of competition anions on phase transfer and to evaluate the stoichiometry of the complexes extracted. Lipophilicity and ionisation properties of guanidinium hosts and their Tc(VII)/Re(VII) complexes are determined by RP-HPLC. Molecular modeling calculations are used for the interpretation of the experimental results.