Recent progress to construct calixarene-based polymers using covalent bonds: synthesis and applications

The combination of supramolecular chemistry and polymer sciences creates a great possibility to afford calixarene-based polymers offering unique features and applications. The enhancement of calixarene's versatility in this manner has made chemists better able to achieve different objectives in host–guest chemistry. The calixarene-based polymers can be divided into covalent polymers and supramolecular polymers regarding the interactions. Although there are several studies available on the calixarene-based supramolecular polymers, there is a paucity of studies on the calixarene-based covalent polymers. In this paper, the most recent developments and applications of the calixarene-based covalent polymers in the last two decades have been reviewed. We have particularly focused on the polymers, including those where the calixarene molecules have been used as macromonomers and polymerize through covalent bonds. Moreover, covalent polymers or solid supports functionalized with calixarenes are highlighted as well.