Metal–organic calixarene capsules: the evolution of controlled assembly

Abstract

Calixarenes are versatile cyclic host molecules that have been utilised widely across supramolecular chemistry for a variety of reasons. As the title suggests, the main thrust of this Highlight is the metal-directed assembly of calixarene (as well as other related host) capsules. As an introduction for the non-specialist, this article first describes some design strategies that have been successfully employed in the target synthesis of porous materials. The conformational features of calixarenes are then introduced prior to some developments in their (and other cyclic host) functionalisation. Finally we describe the application of the aforementioned design strategies in metal-directed assembly to afford target capsules, highlighting recent developments in the field with p-carboxylatocalix[4 and 5]arenes.