Collaborative routes to clarifying the murky waters of aqueous supramolecular chemistry

On planet Earth, water is everywhere: the majority of the surface is covered with it; it is a key component of all life; its vapour and droplets fill the lower atmosphere; and even rocks contain it and undergo geomorphological changes because of it. A community of physical scientists largely drives studies of the chemistry of water and aqueous solutions, with expertise in biochemistry, spectroscopy and computer modelling. More recently, however, supramolecular chemists — with their expertise in macrocyclic synthesis and measuring supramolecular interactions — have renewed their interest in water-mediated non-covalent interactions. These two groups offer complementary expertise that, if harnessed, offer to accelerate our understanding of aqueous supramolecular chemistry and water writ large. This Review summarizes the state-of-the-art of the two fields, and highlights where there is latent chemical space for collaborative exploration by the two groups. Given its ubiquity, the importance of understanding the properties of water cannot be understated. Now, stemming from discussions at a National Science Foundation-supported workshop, this Review Article highlights where there is latent chemical space for potential collaborations between the physical and supramolecular communities, both of which are interested in how molecules interact with each other in water.