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What is Supramolecular Chemistry?

In conventional synthetic chemistry, molecules are constructed in a step-by-step fashion, where each step selectively creates new covalent bonds. However, there is a limit in size and functionality, beyond which conventional total synthesis ceases to be practical, as it would involve too many synthetic steps. On the other hand, biological assemblies (e.g., enzymes-substrates, nucleic acid-proteins, cells) can be quite large and are capable of performing very complex functions. How are these biological systems put together? Through the association of individual molecules using non-covalent forces.

Supramolecular chemistry is the field of science which uses non-covalent bonds to construct molecular assemblies. These assemblies exhibit completely novel properties, which are not observed in the individual components. This new and exciting field has emerged in the last part of the 20th century, and has already involved the efforts of a large number of laboratories around the world (and the 1987 Nobel Prize was awarded to its three founders, Profs. J.-M. Lehn, D. Cram and Dr. C. Pederson). The applications of supramolecular chemistry are in a spectrum of disciplines, including biological sciences, materials science, nanotechnology, catalysis, sensing, and separation science.