In 2015, we reported the rationally designed organic cages, named as porphyrin boxes (PBs), using six square shaped porphyrin units and eight triangular building blocks. PBs are cube-shaped, shape-persistent porous organic solids with a large cavity (~2 nm in diameter). The size of pore can be tuned using different sized building units while maintaining the topology of the cages. Beside the high chemical stability in a broad pH range (4.8 to 13) in aqueous media, the PBs exhibit a high surface area (1370 m2g-1) and interesting gas sorption behavior in the solid state. By virtue of the unique properties, we have been exploring many fields such as selective ion transport, catalysis, and the construction of hierarchical superstructures. Recent results on porphyrin boxes and other related self-assembled organic cages will be presented.

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