Supramolecular functional group

Interactions can be combined by a designed placement of functional groups in the molecular skeleton to generate supramolecular synthons, which are defined as structural units within supermolecules that can be formed and/or assembled by known or conceivable synthetic operations involving intermolecular interactions (Desiraju, 1995). In other words supramolecular synthons are spatial arrangements of intermolecular interactions. 

Many supramolecular systems contain endo-functionalities. But in most cases, the concave positioning of the functional group is not assured [53]. 

Endowing these polymolecular entities with recognition units and reactive functional groups may lead to systems performing molecular recognition or supramolecular catalysis on external or internal surfaces of organic (molecular layers, membranes, vesicles, polymers, etc.) [7.1-7.13, A.41] or inorganic (zeolites, clays, sol-gel preparations, etc.) [7.14-7.20] materials. 

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