Self-assembled architectures from glycoluril

The controlled self-assembly of derivatives of the concave building block g lycoluril into three-dimensional architectures of well-defined shape and di mension is discussed. It is-shown that the hexameric glycoluril macrocycle cucurbituril can be applied to construct a variety of oligo- and polyrotaxa ne assemblies. In a different approach, bis(glycoluril) compounds have been used to form "tennis ball"- and "softball"-like assemblies which can compl ex small guest molecules in their inner compartment and carry out reactions between them. Finally,the self-assembling properties of molecular clip rec eptors based on glycoluril are discussed. These clips can be modified in su ch a way that assemblies of well-defined shape and nanosized dimension, suc h as "golf balls", "razorblades", and "cigars", are formed in water.