In this work we describe the preparation of two tetracationic molecular tweezers that were used as hosts for the recognition of chloride, bromide and iodide. These two hosts contain a rigid bis-alkynyl spacer that connects two arms built with two pincer bis-imidazolium units. The nature of the spacer confers distinct structural features to these two molecular ‘pincer-tweezers’. The tweezer with the anthracenyl linker has a quasi-parallel disposition of the two arms of the tweezer, while in the carbazolyl-linked tweezer the two arms are significantly more separated.
