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Host-guest chemistry

Introduction

Overview

Overview

File:Cucurbit-6-uril ActaCrystallB-Stru 1984 382.jpg
Crystal structure of a host-guest complex with a p-xylylenediammonium bound within a cucurbituril reported by Freeman in Acta. Crystallogr. B, 1984, 382-387.
File:Encapsulating Assembly of Nitrogen by Rebek.jpg
A guest N2 is bound within a host hydrogen-bonded capsule reported by Julius Rebek et al. in Chem. Eur. J. 1996, 2, 989-991.

In supramolecular chemistry, host-guest chemistry describes complexes that are composed of two or more molecules or ions held together in unique structural relationships by hydrogen bonding or by ion pairing or by Van der Waals force other than those of full covalent bonds.

The host component is defined as an organic molecule or ion whose binding sites converge in the complex and the guest component is defined as any molecule or ion whose binding sites diverge in the complex.

Common host molecules

Common host molecules

Examples

Examples

Host-guest chemistry is observed in:

See also

See also