Crown porphyrins

Macromolecules incorporating various types of macrocycles have been designed and synthesized for almost half a century. Among them, those elaborated on the basis of a porphyrin represent a special class of compounds. Indeed, crown porphyrins have always attracted attention and creativity. Very different macromolecules have been designed and synthesized targeting various tasks such as the visible region sensing of sodium cyanide, allosteric binding of cations, epoxidation of styrene or recognition of axial ligands. The aim of this overview is to summarize and sort the possible arrangements that can be produced by covalently linking a crown-ether type molecule (or several) on a porphyrin. The crown-ether molecule is considered here in a general way and includes crown-ethers, aza-crown-ethers and mixed compounds.