Self-Assembly of Molecular-Sized Boxes

摘要

Molecular recognition of guests by synthetic hosts is a rapidly developing field, and many of the basic principles that govern the efficiency and selectivity of intermolecular complexation have been elucidated. The following requirements have emergedfor the design of an effective receptor'.for a particular target molecule: 1 The host should be poWmacrocyclic and contain a large cavity in which the number of interactions with the bound guest can be maximized. 2. The van der Waals surfaces and electrostatic potential sur-aces of the host and guest should be complementary. 3. The host should be relatively rigid so that the loss of con-formational entropy on binding a guest is minimized.