A microcalorimetric study on the inclusion of monovalent and divalent metal cations by p-sulfonatocalix[4]arene was performed. The thermodynamic parameters for the complexation of alkali metal cations and Ag(+) were obtained for the first time at neutral pH. The Na(+) cation is routinely present as counterion of the calixarene in neutral aqueous solution, and this must be taken into account in the determination of the thermodynamic parameters for the complexation of Na(+) and the other cations by considering a sequential or a competitive binding scheme. The ΔH° and ΔS° values show that the inclusion process is entropically driven, although an influence of the temperature on the complexation reaction indicates that the enthalpic term is also an important contributor. The results also reveal that enthalpy/entropy compensation balances the gain in one contribution against a corresponding loss in the other. The obtained thermodynamic data are in contrast to the results from previous microcalorimetric studies, which showed binding constants that were orders of magnitude smaller and complexations, which were in part enthalpically driven but which neglected the influence of the alkali metal counterions.

The formation of mixed micelles composed of dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (C(12)TAB) and a hexamethylated p-sulfonatocalix[6]arene (SC6HM) was studied by several techniques. It was found that above the critical aggregation concentration the concentrations of free and micellized surfactant are strongly related to that of SC6HM. When there is free SC6HM in solution, the addition of C(12)TAB mainly results in an increase in the concentration of micellized surfactant, but when all SC6HM has been aggregated, the addition of C(12)TAB results in a substantial increase in the concentration of free surfactant in solution. When the concentration of free surfactant is equal to the critical micelle concentration of the pure system, a second independent aggregation process is observed. This aggregation behavior has many features that are similar to those of more complex systems that involve surfactants in the presence of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes. In this way, calixarenes can serve as simple models to mimic polyelectrolytes and to gain insight into the complex behavior displayed by these macromolecules.

The mixed system between p-sulfonatocalix[4]arene and tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide forms unilamellar vesicles after sonication of the aqueous dispersion. Furthermore these vesicles can be stored, without use of lyoprotectants, by lyophilization and then rehydration without change in size or shape.

Calorimetric and NMR titration experiments have been done to measure the binding constant between p-sulfonatocalix[4]arene and a quaternary ammonium ion. Our results show that the binding constants depend both on the calixarene concentration and on the presence of added Na(+). These results have been interpreted by considering the ion-exchange equilibrium between sulfonatocalixarene counterions and the added organic cation. Our results show that it is necessary to extrapolate the binding constants to zero calixarene concentration and zero added salts in order to get the true equilibrium constant.

p-Sulfonatocalixarenes are a special class of water soluble macrocyclic molecules made of 4-hydroxybenzenesulfonate units linked by methylene bridges. One of the main features of these compounds relies on their ability to form inclusion complexes with cationic and neutral species. This feature, together with their water solubility and apparent biological compatibility, had enabled them to emerge as one the most important host receptors in supramolecular chemistry. Attachment of hydrophobic alkyl chains to these compounds leads to the formation of macrocyclic host molecules with amphiphilic properties. Like other oligomeric surfactants, these compounds present improved performance with respect to their monomeric counterparts. In addition, they hold their recognition abilities and present several structural features that depend on the size of the macrocycle and on the length of the alkyl chain, such as preorganization, flexibility and adopted conformations, which make these molecules very interesting to study structure-aggregation relationships. Moreover, the recognition abilities of p-sulfonatocalixarenes enable them to be applied in the design of amphiphiles constructed from non-covalent, rather than covalent, bonds (supramolecular amphiphiles). In this review, we summarize the developments made on the design and synthesis of p-sulfonatocalixarenes-based surfactants, the characterization of their self-assembly properties and on how their structure affects these properties.