N-Benzyloxyethyl cyclic α-peptoids of various size were prepared and their conformational features were investigated by means of computational, spectroscopic, and X-ray crystallographic studies.

The synthesis, complexation properties and catalytic activities under phase-transfer (PT) conditions of differently substituted cyclohexapeptoids are reported. Association constants, for small cationic alkali, and catalytic performances, in a model nucleophilic substitution, are comparable to those of representative crown ethers. Noteworthy, the N-[2-(2-methoxyethoxy)ethyl] side chain derivative presents a catalytic efficiency comparable to that of crypt-222, and higher than some commonly used quaternary ammonium salts and crown ethers. Moreover its association constant for Na⁺ complexation proved to be higher when compared with dicyclohexyl-18-crown-6. The synthesized cyclohexapeptoids represent the first example of these peptidomimetics in PT catalysis, anticipating interesting applications in biphasic PT methodology.

N-Benzyloxyethyl macrocyclic peptoids 3 and 4 were synthesized and subjected to alkali metal binding studies; these compounds, plus the known 1 and 2, when subjected to ion transport studies, demonstrated size-dependent selectivity for the first group alkali metals cation transport.