Discrimination by structural dislocation: thermodynamic stabilities of the Zn II and Cd II complexes of a serious of O2N3-donor macrocycles

Systematic minor perturbations of ligand structures can lead to a dramatic ‘dislocation’ in geometry at one point along a series of metal complexes; the accompanying changes in thermodynamic stability may have important implication for strategies to achieve metal ion recognition by organic substrates; dislocation discrimination is illustrated by the complexation behaviour of a series of O2N3-donor macrocycles with ZnII and CdII.