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ABSTRACT Supramolecular macrocyclic hosts, such as crown ethers, cucurbiturils, calixarenes, cyclodextrins, and pillararenes, have significantly advanced host–guest chemistry. However, their practical applications in functional materials are often limited by structural diversity constraints, suboptimal photophysical properties, and inherent nonemissive characteristics. To overcome these limitations, the orthogonal incorporation of aggregation‐induced emission‐active tetraphenylethene (TPE) units into macrocyclic skeletons has emerged as a promising strategy. This minireview systematically categorizes TPE‐embedded macrocyclic hosts into three types, non‐, semi‐, and full‐TPE‐embedded, based on the skeleton of TPE integration, highlighting their molecular design principles, photophysical properties, and diverse applications. Drawing upon research advances from the past 5 years, this minireview underscores the dual functionality of conventional macrocyclic skeletons and TPE units, which stems from the restriction of intramolecular rotation mechanism. Furthermore, key challenges in molecular design and potential future research directions are outlined to guide the development of next‐generation TPE‐based macrocyclic hosts with tailored functionalities, thereby deepening the understanding of structure–property–function relationships.
Tian et al. (Thu,) studied this question.