Supramolecular polymers, polymeric systems beyond the molecule, have attracted more and more attention from scientists due to their applications in various fields, including stimuli-responsive materials, healable materials, and drug delivery. Due to their good selectivity and convenient enviro-responsiveness, crown ether-based molecular recognition motifs have been actively employed to fabricate supramolecular polymers with interesting properties and novel applications in recent years. In this tutorial review,the researchers classify supramolecular polymers based on their differences in topology and cover recent advances in the marriage between crown ether-based molecular recognition and polymer science.

http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2012/CS/c1cs15220c