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Macrocyclic chemistry

A star is born

Nature Chemistry volume 5, pages 646–647 (2013)Cite this article

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A Correction to this article was published on 22 August 2013

This article has been updated

Macrocycles have been a mainstay of supramolecular chemistry since its beginnings. The latest addition to this rank of host compounds is the result of a simple and high-yielding one-step method that produces a star-shaped macrocycle able to bind anionic guests — and has the potential for generating a wide range of anion-responsive structures.

The study of 'host' molecules capable of including 'guests' (typically other molecules or atomic ions) within their cavities has historically formed much of the foundation for what is now regarded as supramolecular chemistry. The ground-breaking work of Cram, Lehn and Pedersen that earned them the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was largely centred on the synthesis and non-covalent chemistry of macrocycles, most of them with intriguing shape-inspired names such as crown ethers, cryptands and spherands1,2,3. The covalent organization of functional groups to form three-dimensional cavities, reminiscent of protein active sites, that made these first synthetic macrocycles such interesting compounds to study is what continues to inspire chemists to create new supramolecular schemes and materials based on large cyclic molecules. Now, writing in Nature Chemistry, Amar Flood and co-workers introduce a new 'star' player to this stage4.

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Figure 1: Synthesis, structure and anion recognition by a 'cyanostar' macrocycle.

Change history

  • 24 July 2013

    In the version of this News & Views previously published, in Fig. 1 the structure for the cyanostar macrocycle was missing a bond. Corrected in the HTML and PDF versions after print.

References

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  5. Yang, W., Li, Y., Liu, H., Chi, L. & Li, Y. Small 8, 504–516 (2012).

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  1. James A. Wisner is in the Department of Chemistry at Western University, London, Ontario N6A 5B7, Canada,

    James A. Wisner

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  1. James A. Wisner
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Correspondence to James A. Wisner.

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Wisner, J. A star is born. Nature Chem 5, 646–647 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1715

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