Advances in the study of the host-guest interaction by using coronene as the guest molecule

Host-guest chemistry in two-dimensional (2D) networks has gained much interest for the new functionalities and potential applications, such as separation technology, photogenic crystals and biomimetic surfaces. Nanoporous supramolecular networks are assembled by a range of non-covalent forces like hydrogen bonds, van der Waals interactions and coordinate bonds, to immobilize guest molecules of different sizes and shapes. In this review, we mainly presented the effect of coronene on the host-guest architecture. Coronene (COR) is chosen to be the promising guest molecule and it can embed, cover, or change the host networks in different host-guest systems. All of the research in the review was finished with assistance of scanning tunneling microscope (STM). These studies were called upon impose controlling on host-guest systems and revealed the behaviors of COR clusters as guest molecules.