Recent progress in pillar[n]arene-based thin films on chemical sensor applications

Pillar[n]arene is one of the most favorited supramolecular materials that possess a special chiral structure. The major property of pillar-structured materials is their high cavity, and this structure is able to dominate the higher cavity values due to the big number of n (5,6,7) as hydroquinone units. Thanks to this significant property, pillar[n]arenes can be preferred to use in a wide application area. The chemical sensor application of pillar[n]arenes is one of the most applicable one, because they are more prominent than other macrocyclic skeletons (calixarene, crown ether, etc.) in the related area. Although the studies on chemical sensor application by using pillar[n]arenes as sensing elements have been performed so far, the thin film of these macrocyclic architectures, have been very limited in the available literature. Therefore, the recent developments of pillar[n]arene-based thin films and their chemical sensor applications are investigated and discussed in this review article.

Automated summary

Pillar[n]arenes, with their high cavity and potential for chemical sensor applications, have been limited in thin film research.