Porous materials, especially metal–organic frameworks, covalent organic frameworks, and supramolecular organic frameworks, are widely used in heterogeneous catalysis, adsorption, and ion exchange. Cucurbit[n]urils (Q[n]s) suitable building units for porous materials because they possess cavities with neutral electrostatic potential, portal carbonyls with negative electrostatic potential, and outer surfaces with positive electrostatic potential, which may result in the formation of Q[n]‐based supramolecular frameworks (QSFs) assembled through the interaction of guests within Q[n]s, the coordination of Q[n]s with metal ions, and outer‐surface interaction of Q[n]s (OSIQ). This review summarizes the various QSFs assembled via OSIQs. The QSFs can be classified as being assembled by 1) self‐induced OSIQ, 2) anion‐induced OSIQ, and 3) aromatic‐induced OSIQ. The design and construction of QSFs with novel structures and specific functional properties may establish a new research direction in Q[n] chemistry.

Frameworks utilizing cucurbit[n]uril-based chemistry build on the rapid developments in the fields of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), covalent-organic frameworks (COFs), and supramolecular organic frameworks (SOFs), and as porous materials have found...

This review covers the important advances in the field of cucurbit[n]uril-based mechanically interlocked molecules over the past two decades.

The anion-induced outer surface interaction of Q[n]s is an important driving force in the construction of Q[n]-based supramolecular frameworks. In this work, a symmetric tetramethylsubstituted cucurbit[6]uril (TMeQ[6]) is selected as the basic structural block. Using the anion-induced outer surface interaction of Q[n]s derived from [Cd x Cl y ] n− anions formed by Cd 2+ cations in a HCl medium, four different TMeQ[6]-[Cd x Cl y ] n− -based supramolecular frameworks are constructed. Three of the most common TMeQ[6]-[Cd x Cl y ] n− -based supramolecular frameworks are selected for further vulcanization, and three different CdS/ TMeQ[6]-based framework catalysts with different structures and properties are obtained. The catalytic activities of these three CdS/ TMeQ[6]-based framework catalysts are investigated by the coupling photocatalytic reaction of aminobenzyl, and the results showed that the catalytic activities of the three catalysts are all higher than that of pure CdS. Therefore, this work establishes that it is possible to establish a method for synthesizing the Q[n]based framework-supported catalysts by first synthesizing TMeQ[6]-[Cd x Cl y ] n− -based supramolecular frameworks and then forming Q[n]-based framework supported catalysts by sulfurization or reduction.

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