Polyimine container molecules and nanocapsules

The field of dynamic covalent nanocapsule synthesis is very young, and most contributions to the development of reliable approaches for the assembly of dynamic covalent capsules have been made during the past five years. In 1991, Quan and Cram published the first Schiff base molecular container compound. Over the past six years, a large number of multi-component polyimine hemicarcerand and polyhedron syntheses have been developed. This review will focus primarily on recent achievements in the area of pure Schiff base nanocapsules and highlight different synthetic approaches and design strategies, as well as first applications of these capsules in molecular recognition, gas storage, and gas separation.