Cucurbiturils–a New Family of Host Molecules

The supramolecular chemistry of cucurbituril, a synthetic receptor, is fascinating because of the remarkable guest binding behavior of the host. Although cucurbituril is potentially as useful as crown ethers, cyclodextrins, and calixarenes in many applications, its chemistry has not been developed much until recently because of several shortcomings. Recently we synthesized cucurbituril homologues and derivatives. These new members of the cucurbituril family have expanded the scope further, and interest in them has grown enormously. The diversity in guest binding behavior has led to many interesting studies such as redox control of guest binding, stabilization of charge-transfer complexes inside the host cavity, encapsulation of drug molecules, formation of redox-controllable vesicles, and so on. The cucurbituril homologues and derivatives thus provide new opportunities in many areas of supramolecular chemistry including recognition, catalysis, separation, transport, and many others.