A novel strapped porphyrin receptor Zn1, in which two electron-rich bis (p-phenylene)-34- crown ether-10 units are incorporated, has been designed and synthesized from the newly developed intermediate 7 for investigating new chemistry of molecular recognition. 1H NMR and UV–Vis studies revealed that Zn1 displays relatively weak binding abilities to neutral electron deficient naphthalene-1, 8, 4, 5-tetracarboxydiimide (NDI) derivatives 13 (no ...