Supramolecular Chemistry: From Molecule to Molecular Machines

Supramolecular chemistry as de-ned by Lehn ‘chemistry beyond the molecule’ focuses on the development of functional complex architectures through non-covalent interactions. The year 2017, marked the fiftieth anniversary of the serendipitous discovery of crown ethers. Since then, the field is growing, and due to the efforts of various researchers now it is possible to have some control over the arrangement of things on a small scale. In this review article, the concept of supramolecular chemistry, cooperativity responsible for interactions, techniques for determination of thermodynamic parameters of cooperativity, and the contribution of supramolecular chemistry to nanotechnology is described. © 2018, Indian Academy of Sciences.