Coronarenes: recent advances and perspectives on macrocyclic and supramolecular chemistry

Synthetic macrocyclic host molecules always play an essential role in the establishment and development of supramolecular chemistry. Along with the continuous interests in the study of classical macrocycles, recent decades have witnessed the emergence and rapid development of the chemistry and supramolecular chemistry of novel and functional macrocycles. Owing to their easy availability, a self-tunable V-shaped cavity resulted from 1,3-alternate conformation, and diversified electronic features steered by the interplay between heteroatom linkages and aromatic rings, heteracalixaromatics act as a type of versatile and powerful macrocyclic hosts in molecular recognition and fabrication of supramolecular systems. Very recently, by means of engineering the bond connectivity or the recombination of chemical bonds within heteracalixaromatics, we have devised coronarenes, a new generation of macrocycles. In this concise review, macrocyclic and supramolecular chemistry of coronarenes are summarized in the order of their syntheses, structural features, molecular recognition and self-assembly properties. In the last part of this article, personal perspectives on the study of macrocyclic and supramolecular chemistry will also be discussed.