ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Chem.
Sec. Organic Chemistry
This article is part of the Research TopicMicroenvironment-Responsive Organic, Inorganic, and Hybrid Structured Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Therapeutic Strategies, and Imaging ApplicationsView all 4 articles
Synthesis and host-guest chemistry of a thiophene-extended pillar[6]arene: toward applications in nitroaromatics removal and cell imaging
Provisionally accepted
Tingting Chen1*
Fengqin Wang2- 1School of Mechanical Engineering, Nantong Institute of Technology, Nantong, China
- 2Nantong Institute of Technology, Nantong, China
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Over the past decade, significant progress has been made in the study of pillar[n]arenes; however, the development of their analogs remains underexplored, offering new opportunities for the discovery of functional materials. In this work, a luminescent thiophene-extended pillar[6]arene (TPExP6) featuring a π-rich cavity was designed and synthesized from 2,5-dibromothiophene and (4-formylphenyl)boronic acid via a five-step procedure with an overall yield of approximately 9.8%. This molecule combines an extended π-conjugated cavity with strong intrinsic emission, enabling it not only to form stable host–guest complexes with nitrobenzene derivatives for the effective removal of persistent nitroaromatic pollutants from water but also to be applied in tumor cell imaging. This achievement substantially advances the application of macrocyclic compounds in environmental protection and biomedical materials.
Keywords: Cell imaging, host-guest chemistry, Nitroaromatics sensing, Pillar[6]arene, Synthesis
Received: 29 Jan 2026; Accepted: 09 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Chen and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Tingting Chen
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