The tenn "calixarenes," introduced in 1978 by D. Gutsche to describe the cyclic oligomers produced by condensation of p-substituted phenols with fonnaldehyde, is now universally accepted in the chemical community. The condensation of phenol with fonnaldehyde was studied in the last century by A. von Baeyer. Early in this century, L. Baekeland produced the first entirely synthetic polymers from phenol-fonnaldehyde condensates and the possibility that cyclic condensation products could be obtained from t-butylphenol, and fonnaldehyde was mentioned as early as in the beginning of the 1940's by...

We are proud to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the calixarenes. In 1944, Zinke and Ziegler proposed a cyclotetrameric structure for an oligomer extracted from the condensation product mixture obtained by reacting p-tert-butyl phenol with formaldehyde in the presence of sodium hydroxide.
Fifty years on, calixarenes are the basis of many different areas of chemical research, with development occurring at an increasing pace over the past decade in particular. The present volume does not provide an overview of all these developments, but is rather a celebration of some of the...