Synthons and supramolecular chemistry

Alexandr Butlerov (1828-1886) Russian chemist, professor at the University of Kazan and Saint Petersburg. In 1861 Butlerov presented a concept of molecular spatial structure, where the atoms are bound by atom-to-atom chemical bonds, with properties characteristic for the atoms involved, an atom being able to bind only a few nearest neighbour atoms. Kazan University may be proud of several excellent scholars. Besides Butlerov, among others, there 

Friedrich August Kekule von Stradonitz (1829-1896), German organic and theoretical chemist, professor at the universities in Gent and Bonn. In 1858 Kekule proved, that carbon has valency four and in 1865 proposed the correct ring-like formula for benzene after a peculiar dream about a serpent eating its own tail. 

It would seem that these soft structures are not interesting as they are unstable (it is sufficient to increase the temperature to make the structure disappear). The opposite is true, because such structures, after performing their function, may be destroyed without any significant energy expense. 

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The term synthon originates from Nobel Laureate E.J. Corey, [55] and appears in the indexed part of the literature for the first time in 1968 [56] and since 1985 some 300-400 articles a year use the term in different circumstances. The concept was extended to crystal engineering and supramolecular chemistry by G. R. Desiraju in the mid 1990 s [14]. In this context, a pair of a suitable hydrogen bond donor and an acceptor is a synthon, but it can of course also be a... 

Recently, we have been investigating the chemistry of a series of racemic diquinoline compounds that form lattice inclusion hosts. The solid-state structures of these involve only rather weak intermolecular attractions. A number of these hosts assemble by means of centrosymmetric supramolecular synthons, and therefore their enantiomer separation is limited in the solid state. 

In the context of organic synthesis, the term synthon was introduced by Corey in 1967 to refer to structural units within molecules which can be formed and/or assembled by known or conceivable synthetic operations. This general definition was modified by Desiraju for supramolecular chemistry Supramolecular synthons are structural units within supermolcules which can be formed and/or... 

Nangia A, Desiraju GR (1998) Supramolecular Synthons and Pattern Recognition. 198 57-95 Narayanan VV, Newkome GR (1998) Supramolecular Chemistry within Dendritic Structures. 

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