Supramolecular chemistry is a rapidly evolving field that has focused on building a foundation of fundamental understanding in controlling molecular self-assembly, through the use of non-covalent interactions. A common criticism of the field is that whilst the systems produced are very elegant, they do not have real-world use. Therefore, focus is now moving to applying the fundamental understanding of supramolecular chemistry to the production of commercially viable products. Building on our previous review in this area, which described the translational potential of innovations within the field of supramolecular chemistry up to the year 2020, we now review the progress of this field over the years 2021-2025 with the aim to inspire researchers to apply supramolecular chemistry to solve real world problems, moving innovation out of the laboratory and into the commercial marketplace.
Balderston et al. (Wed,) studied this question.