Patent ID: 7132571

Claim:
A method of forming a guest-host assembly and releasing a guest component from said guest-host assembly, comprising: (a) providing a spheroidal guest-host assembly having a host component formed of trimers of calixarene molecules in a hexagonal close-packed assembly of said trimers associated together predominantly by van der Waals forces to provide at least one dilated channel having a void volume within the range of 100-200 Å 3 and having a guest component encapsulated within said at least one dilated channel of said spheroidal host assembly and retaining within said channel predominantly by van der Waals forces, said guest-host assembly being stable at a temperature of at least 150° C.; (b) heating said guest-host assembly to a temperature in excess of 150° C., which is sufficient to destabilize said guest-host assembly and release the guest molecules; (c) cooling said host assembly molecules and reassembling said molecules to form a generally spherical assembly formed of trimers of said calixarene molecules in a hexagonal close-packed assembly of said trimers associated together predominantly by van der Waals forces to provide at least one dilated channel having a void volume within the range of 100-200 Å 3 ; and (d) infusing a guest component in the dilated channel of said host assembly to provide a guest-host assembly in which said guest component is retained in said assembly predominantly by van der Waals forces and is stable at a temperature of at least 150° C.