Calixarenes

Calixarenes

 Calixarenes

Assistant Professor-Dr- Ali Sami Ismail-Department of Chemstry

 esp.ali.sami@uoanbar.edu.iq

 The author's official website

The world of organic chemistry is populated by several million compounds distributed among hundreds of families. Some of these families have commanded the attention of chemists for many decades and have reached a venerable patrician status. Many others are more recently arrived and have yet to establish their place in the hierarchy of chemical importance. Among the latter is the family of compounds called the calixarenes which, although more than 50 years old, has gained widespread attention from the chemical community only during the last decade.

    

[14] metacyclophane, calix crater, and CPK (Corey-Pauling-Koltun) model carrying a guest

Calixarenes are [ ln] metacyclophanes (1) that acquired their name because of the resemblance of the shape of one of the conformers of the smallest member of their family to a type of Greek vase called a calix crater. The name was initially chosen to apply specifically to the phenol-derived cyclic oligomers, but it has subsequently taken on a more generic aspect and is now applied to a wide variety of structurally related types of compounds. The calixarenes were first discussed in comprehensive fashion in 1989 in the first volume of Monographs in Supramolecular Chemistry,’ where the literature on the subject that had been published up to that time was covered in reasonably complete detail in 222 pages. Since 1989, however, there has been such a rapid expansion of the field that a somewhat less comprehensive coverage of topics is now necessary if this second volume is to be anywhere near as slim as the first. It is our endeavor in this second volume to include a significant portion of the pertinent literature citations in the field through 1996. The calixarene family can be subdivided into two major branches, the phenol-derived cyclooligomers (2) and the resorcinol-derived cyclooligomers (3).

  

 

[14] metacyclophane, calix crater, and CPK (Corey-Pauling-Koltun) model carrying a guest

The importance of the calix[n]arenes lies in the fact that they are able to recognize and accommodate into their cavity guest molecules via non-covalent interactions. This synthesis has good yields, and the reagents are inexpensive. In addition, the simple derivatives of calixarenes have not exhibited toxicity or immunogenic properties. All of this makes calixarenes highly valued in supramolecular chemistry as complex agents for the transport of drugs and their controlled release, among other applications. 

 

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