Control of guest binding kinetics in macrocycles and molecular cages

Abstract

While hostguest binding is generally a very fast reaction, guest uptake/release sometimes becomes slow particularly when the host cavity is separated from the outside by relatively narrow openings. If the apertures are opened/closed, the host molecule can be used as a nano-sized container just like a capped container in our daily life. This review focuses on the recent development of the kinetic control of guest uptake/release based on the open/close functions, etc., in addition to fundamental kinetic studies of hostguest binding.