Template Synthesis (Self-Assembly) of Macrocycles: Theory and Practice.

For more than 60 years, in coordination chemistry (and since the beginning of the 21st century, in molecular nanotechnology, too), there has been very significant interest in template synthesis reactions, in which the design of coordination compounds (metal complexes) with complex ligands is carried out not according to the classical scheme [metal ion + ligand → complex], but according to scheme [metal ion + "building blocks" of the future ligand (the so-called ligand synthons or ligsons) → complex] [...].