A Teflon-Footed Resorcinarene

Significance

The authors report the first ‘teflon-footed’ resorcinarene that is soluble in wet fluorous solvents as a result of the formation of a hexa­meric capsule, which enabled the observation of fluorophobic effects arising from molecular encapsulation in fluorous solvents. The synthetic strategy involved the cyclooligomerization of resorcinol with highly fluorinated aldehyde to give 1 ^F as a crown conformer in 51% yield. The teflon-footed resorcinarene was insoluble in common organic solvents such as MeOH, EtOAc, CHCl₃, and n-hexane; however, it was highly soluble in wet perfluorobutyl methyl ether (HFE-7100) and in wet FC-72.