Supramolecular Catalysis in Water

Design and Applications of Water-Soluble Coordination Cages

“…The use of WSCCs as catalysts is also guided by a move toward developing greener industrial processes. Water is an environmentally friendly alternative to organic solvents for such processes, although problems associated with disposal and purification of contaminated water still need to be addressed before a catalytic process may be considered “green” …”

“…Water is an environmentally friendly alternative to organic solvents for such processes, although problems associated with disposal and purification of contaminated water still need to be addressed before a catalytic process may be considered "green". 275 WSCCs can bring insoluble substrates into water and render them reactive, greatly expanding the scope for reactions that can take place in aqueous environments. Such cages can also act as phase transfer catalysts, to bring organic substrates into proximity with other reagents dissolved in water, and transport products back to organic phases for isolation.…”

Supramolecular Catalysis of a Catalysis-Resistant Diels–Alder Reaction: Almost Theoretical Acceleration of Cyclopentadiene Dimerization inside Cucurbit[7]uril

“…Supramolecular catalysis with macrocycles − has proven to be conceptually insightful in regard to the fundamental roles of effective molarity, substrate preorganization, transition-state stabilization, competitive binding, and product inhibition. , One reason that macrocycles such as cyclodextrins, calixarenes, cyclophanes, cavitands, capsules, molecular metallacages, and cucurbiturils have been elevated in focus is their potential to mimic active sites, which could eventually rival the enzymatic function. − In particular, Diels–Alder reactions − have emerged as the gold standard to benchmark the catalytic activity of macrocycles. ,,,,− Supramolecular catalysis case studies have invariably employed Diels–Alder substrates with heteroatom-containing activating groups as “handles” (Table ) because they are known to respond strongly to a solvent environment, the presence of (Lewis) acids, , or water. , …”

A Quantum‐chemical Analysis on the Lewis Acidity of Diarylhalonium Ions

“…In the last decades, non‐covalent Lewis acids have successively been introduced and have found application in many areas, maybe most importantly in organocatalysis. [1] Hydrogen bonding was the predominant interaction in this regard for many years,[ 2 , 3 ] but now other “unorthodox” ones[ 4 , 5 , 6 ] like halogen bonding[ 7 , 8 , 9 ] have also been established as reliable forces. Halogen bonding (XB) [10] denotes the attraction of electrophilic halogen substituents to Lewis bases, and typically iodine(I) systems have been used in most cases.…”