ABSTRACT:This paper reviews our recent studies on the syntheses and functions of novel calixarene derivatives with excellent thermal stability as high performance materials. Calixarene derivatives containing protective groups such as tert-butoxycarbonyl (t-Boc), trimethylsilyl (TMS), and cyclohexenyl (CHE) groups were successfully prepared by the reaction of certain calixarenes, p-methylcalix [6]arene (1a), p-tert-butylcalix [8]arene (1c), and Cmethylcalix [4]resorcinarene (1d) with the corresponding protecting reagents. Calixarene containing radically polymerizable groups such as methacryloyl groups and cationic polymerizable groups such as propargyl, vinyl ether groups were prepared in good yields. Calixarene derivatives containing cyclic ethers such as oxirane, oxetane, and spiro orthoesters were also prepared. Calixarene derivatives thus obtained had good film forming property and thermal stability. It was proved that the photoinduced deprotection of the calixarene derivatives containing protective groups in the presence of a photo-acid generator proceeded easily to give the corresponding calixarenes with phenol groups. Photoinitiated polymerization of the calixarenes with various polymerizable groups using suitable photoinitiators in the film state proceeded efficiently to produce crosslinked films. Furthermore, thermal curing of epoxy resins with calixarenes (1a, 1c, 1d), and calixarenes containing active ester groups using certain catalysts were studied to found that the calixarenes were useful curing agents for epoxy resins.KEY WORDS Calixarene / Thermal Stability / Protective Group / Polymerizable Group / Photoinduced Deprotection / Radical Polymerization / Cationic Polymerization / Thermal Curing / Epoxy Resin / Calixarenes are cyclic oligomers prepared 1 ordinarily from the reaction of phenols with aldehydes, and have attracted much interest in the field of host-guest chemistry. 2 Therefore, over the last 20 years, synthesis 3 of various calixarene derivatives and chemical modification 4, 5 of calixarenes have been studied in attempting to induce the targeted character. We can consider that calixarene derivatives have further advantage in synthetic organic chemistry as starting materials due to polyfunctional hydroxyl groups, which are readily modified to various functional groups. That is, in polymer synthesis, calixarene derivatives can also be used as multifunctional initiators for the synthesis of starshaped polymers. Kennedy and his co-workers 6 reported the synthesis of a star-shaped polymer with eight arms of poly(iso-butylene) using calix [8]arene derivative as an initiator. Sawamoto and his co-workers 7 succeeded in producing certain star-shaped polymer with 4-8 arms of poly(methyl methacrylate) using cal- † To whom correspondence should be addressed. ixarene derivative as initiator.Recently, it was also suggested that calixarenes have unique characteristics such as small molecular size, good film-forming properties, 8, 9 high glass transition temperature 10 (T g ), excellent thermal stabilit...