Photoswitchable Hosts Based on Calixarenes and Crown Ethers (I)

Calixarenes and crown ethers are two of the most important macrocycles used in supramolecular chemistry. The properties of the hosts will be changed by light by introducing of functional substituents into the ring systems. Such substituents are aryl cycloheptatrienes and acridanes. Both groups undergo a photoheterolysis creating posive charges at the hosts. Organic and inorganic cations are potential guests that should be released from the complex by the photoreaction.