Solvent-tunable binding of hydrophilic and hydrophobic guests by amphiphilic molecular baskets

The binding properties of responsive amphiphilic molecular baskets, obtained by attaching four facially amphiphilic cholate groups to a tetraaminocalixarene scaffold, in polar and nonpolar solvent are presented. The water-soluble version of amphiphilic molecular baskets acts as a unimolecular micelle to solubilize hydrophobic molecules in aqueous solutions.