Incorporation of Cages into Gels: Access to a New Class of Soft Materials with Well-Defined Functionality

The combination of supramolecular self-assemblies and polymer science has resulted in the development of soft materials with diverse properties and applications. In particular, the coordination cages of predefined shape, size, and internal cavity can be utilized intelligently as promising building units for designing responsive and smart soft materials with dual porosity, contributing to the introduction of versatile host-guest chemistry into gels. In this review, we present the recent advancements in gels incorporating coordination cages into their networks, ranging from synthesis strategies to state-of-art applications. In particular, the host-guest chemistry endows the hybrid gel materials with possibilities for guest-specific responsive systems.