Two new anthracene thiourea derivatives,
1 and
2, wereinvestigated as fluorescent chemosensors for the chiralrecognition of the two enantiomers of -amino carboxylates.Especially, host
2 displayed
KL/
KD values as high as 10.4with
t-Boc
alanine. Furthermore, the
D/
L selectivity of hosts
1 and
2 is opposite, even though both hosts bear the sameglucopyranosyl units. These intriguing opposite
D/
L bindingaffinities by
1 and
2 were obtained without/with H-interaction between anthrancene moiety and the methylgroups, which were explained by extensive high-leveltheoretical investigations taking into account the dispersionenergy as well as the 2D-NMR chemical shifts.