Hydrogen bonded network structures constructed from molecular hosts

Molecular hosts are molecules that show intrinsic inclusion behaviour, usually involving guest molecules occupying cavities within the molecular framework of the host. Molecular hosts such as crown ethers, functionalised calixarenes, cyclotriveratrylene, cyclodextrins and cucurbituril have hydrogen bond donor or acceptor functionality. This can be used to incorporate molecular hosts into crystalline materials as components of 1D, 2D or 3D network structures. This may have several interesting consequences, including altering the host-guest characteristics of the host molecule, and creating crystalline materials that show multiple inclusion behaviour such as lattice inclusion and site specific host-guest interactions. Furthermore a number of hitherto elusive species have been isolated as components of such networks.