Rapid construction of shape-persistent H-bonded macrocycles via one-pot H-bonding-assisted macrocyclization

Abstract

The study of macrocycles has crossed many traditional disciplines such as chemistry, physics, biology, medicine and engineering with many research areas concentrating on specific and selective molecular recognition, self-organisation and its already demonstrated and other promising applications. Compared to traditional strategies to synthesize macrocycles with widely ranging structures using such as templated cyclization or dynamic covalent bond formation, one-pot H-bonding-assisted macrocyclization has been shown to provide a simple, fast and cost-efficient method to synthesize shape-persistent H-bonded macrocycles of varying types containing an internal cavity of as large as 2.9 nm in diameter. This review will summarize the recent works on such "greener" syntheses of H-bonded macrocycles that help to create a whole new dimension of research and to offer a new bottom-up strategy for constructing functional architectures and materials. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.