Beyond Simple Substitution Patterns – Symmetrically Tetrasubstituted [2.2]Paracyclophanes as 3D Functional Materials

 [2.2]Paracyclophane is the prototypical layered hydrocarbon and has been essential for investigations of throughspace electronic interactions. Over the last years more examples of tetrasubstituted derivatives have been reported. This minireview discusses the synthetic approaches towards various substitution patterns and provides a survey over different approaches used to achieve and derivatize symmetric tetrasubstitution. The first two sections of this work present homo-tetrasubstituted derivatives, while the third section gives insight into symmetrically hetero-tetrasubstituted analogues. These approaches are briefly discussed, the resulting structures are presented in detail, and their specific properties resulting from the incorporation of [2.2]paracyclophane are elucidated.