Biology is an inspiration for chemists. Especially for the field of supramolecular chemistry, which one of the aim is to develop synthetic molecular receptors capable of molecular recognition to biological substrates, to mimic the activity of natural proteins for clinical applications.

Cyclotribenzylene unit (CTB) is a C3-symmetry structure which present interesting recognition properties. When a CTB is connecting to another molecular unit by three spacers arms, it forms an hemicryptophane receptor. During this thesis, we worked on elaboration receptors based on CTB unit. First, a new way of enantiopure hemicryptophane synthesis on gram scale has been developed for stereoselective recognition of chiral neurotransmitters. Then receptors based on chirality of CTB and binaphthol unit has been developed. Assignment of absolute configuration of chiral unit was determined by a chemical correlation. Stereoselective recognition of carbohydrates by these receptors revealed good diastereoselectivity. Finally, a synthetic pathway leading to fluorescent hemicryptophanes was developed for bi-photonic excitation in order to realize in vivo experiments of tracking biological substrates.

KEYWORDS: Supramolecular chemistry, Molecular recognition, Cyclotribenzylene, Hemicryptophane, Neurotransmitter, Cabrohydrate, Chirality, Stereoselectivity, Fluorescence, Two-photon absorption