Synthesis of Water-Soluble Deep-Cavity Cavitands

An efficient, four-step synthesis of a range of water-soluble, deep-cavity cavitands is presented. Key to this approach are octahalide derivatives (<b>4</b>, X = Cl or Br) that allow a range of water-solubilizing groups to be added to the outer surface of the core host structure. In many cases, the conversion of the starting dodecol (<b>1</b>) resorcinarene to the different cavitands avoids any chromatographic procedures