Cucurbituril: At the Interface of Small Molecule Host-Guest Chemistry and Dynamic Aggregates

The remarkable guest binding behavior of the synthetic receptors, cucurbit[n]uril, has gained tremendous attention over the past few decades. The stronger and more selective encapsulation of small guests has opened up the possibility to develop multi-component, dynamic yet controlled supramolecular aggregated architectures for a wide variety of applications. Isolation of larger homologues and derivatives have expanded the scope further, and interest has grown exponentially. Applications of these unique synthetic receptors presently range from polymeric smart materials and wet nanotechnology to sensing and protein conjugation. This review highlights such examples from recent literature on the development of new dynamic supramolecular aggregates and composites using cucurbituril host-guest chemistry.