The genesis of anion receptor chemistry can be traced back to the late 1960s with the work of Shriver and Biallas on chelating Lewis acids and Park and Simmons on ammonium-containing cryptand-like halide receptors. Despite pioneering work in the 1970s and 1980s from the groups of Lehn and Schmidtchen, the area did not attract significant interest until the 1990s, when the field of anion receptor chemistry—which includes molecular recognition, sensing, transmembrane anion transport, extraction, crystal engineering, self-assembly, and catalysis—began to blossom. This Perspective highlights the recent developments in this area and examines future challenges.

阴离子受体化学的起源可以追溯到1960年代后期，当时Shriver和Biallas研究了螯合路易斯酸，Park和Simmons研究了含铵的穴状类卤化物受体。尽管在1970年代和1980年代Lehn和Schmidtchen小组进行了开创性工作，但直到1990年代，该领域才引起人们的极大兴趣，当时阴离子受体化学领域-包括分子识别，传感，跨膜阴离子运输，萃取，晶体工程，自组装和催化作用-开始开花。本观点重点介绍了该领域的最新发展，并探讨了未来的挑战。