Given their high affinities to form inclusion complexes cucurbiturils have been employed as the macrocycles component of a rotaxane. After formation of the supramolecular assembly or threaded complex with a guest molecule such as hexamethylene diamine the two ends of the guest can be reacted with bulky groups that will then act as a stoppers preventing the two separate molecules from dissociating.
In another rotaxane system with a CB[7] wheel, the axle is a 4,4'-bipyridinium or viologen subunit with two carboxylic acid terminated aliphatic N-substituents at both ends. In water at concentration higher than 0.5 mM complexation is quantitative without need of stoppers. At pH = 2 the carboxylic end-groups are protonated and the wheel shuttles back and forth between them as evidenced by the presence of just two aromatic viologen protons in the proton NMR spectrum. At pH = 9 the wheel is locked around the viologen center. More recently, rotaxane with a CB[8] wheel was synthesized. This rotaxane can bind neutral guest molecules.