Recent progress on the construction of supramolecular organic frameworks based on macrocyclic hosts

Abstract

Supramolecular organic frameworks (SOFs) are a class of highly ordered porous periodic supramolecular polymers constructed by non-covalent interactions. Over the last decade, macrocyclic hosts have been reported to construct SOFs both through their interior cavity and exterior surface. By rationally designing ligands that interact with macrocyclic hosts, a variety of two-dimensional SOFs (2D-SOFs) and three-dimensional SOFs (3D-SOFs) are obtained. These SOFs exhibit unique functions and have been widely applied for recognition, absorption, separation, drug delivery and so on. In this review, we have summarized the construction of SOFs based on four kinds of widely used macrocyclic hosts: cucurbituril, cyclodextrin, calixarene, and pillararene. With the enrichment of construction strategies and applications, this review hopes to promote the development of SOFs based on macrocyclic hosts.