Abstract

The advent of host-guest catalysis brought about the prospect of a complementary mode of catalysis, with the potential for savings in cost, time and energy, easier experimental procedures, and reductions in chemical waste. Water-soluble calix[n]arene catalytic systems provide additional options in biphasic catalysis for organic chemistry and process engineering. The use of calix[n]arene as hostguest catalysis developed in recent years has shown promising results since calix[n]arenes have been widely used as three-dimensional molecular platforms for the design of artificial molecular receptors, due to the availability of cheap starting materials and the facile modification of the calix[n]arene structure at the wide and narrow rims.

Keywords: Calix[n]arenes, host-guest catalysis, phase-transfer catalysis, inverse phase-transfer catalysis, calix[n]arenes inherently chiral.