Ion mobility mass spectrometry – an efficient tool for the analysis of conformational switch of macrocyclic receptors upon anion binding

Interactions between anions and synthetic macrocyclic receptors belong to the extensively explored area of research due to the particularly important functions of anions in biological and environmental sciences. Structures of anion-macrocycle complexes are closely related to their function, highlighting the importance of structural analysis of the complexes. Here, we discuss the application of ion mobility mass spectrometry (IM-MS) and theoretical calculations to the structural analysis of tetralactam macrocycles (M) with varying flexibility and structural properties, and their complexes with anions [M + X]−. Collision cross section (CCS) values obtained from both direct drift tube (DT) and…