Prospects and Challenges in Anion Recognition and Transport

The genesis of anion receptor chemistry can be traced back to the late 1960s with the work of Shriver and Biallas on chelating Lewis acids and Park and Simmons on ammonium-containing cryptand-like halide receptors. Despite pioneering work in the 1970s and 1980s from the groups of Lehn and Schmidtchen, the area did not attract significant interest until the 1990s, when the field of anion receptor chemistry-which includes molecular recognition, sensing, transmembrane anion transport, extraction, crystal engineering, self-assembly, and catalysis-began to blossom. This Perspective highlights the recent developments in this area and examines future challenges.