The applications of halogen bonding in surface functionalization, soft, luminescent and magnetic materials, interpenetrated networks, synthetic methods, and separation and inclusion techniques are reviewed.

Halogen bonding has recently entered the arena of reliable and valuable non-covalent interactions for the construction of supramolecular complexes. A step further, this highlight provides some new insights related to the design of advanced functional materials encompassing halogen bonded mesomorphic and electronic components. Other recent applications have been extended to various aspects of solution phase recognition (catalysis, ion sensing and resolution) and macromolecular organizations (porous, polymeric and hybrid systems).

Engineering functional materials endowed with unprecedented properties require the exploitation of new intermolecular interactions, which can determine the characteristics of the bulk materials. The great potential of Halogen Bonding (XB), namely any noncovalent interaction involving halogens as electron acceptors, in the design of new and high‐value functional materials is now emerging clearly. This Highlight will give a detailed overview on the energetic and geometric features of XB, showing how some of them are quite constant in most of the formed supramolecular complexes (e.g., the angle formed by the covalent and the noncovalent bonds around the halogen atom), while some others depend strictly on the nature of the interacting partners. Then, several specific examples of halogen‐bonded supramolecular architectures, whose structural aspects as well as applications in fields as diverse as enantiomers' separation, crystal engineering, liquid crystals, natural, and synthetic receptors, will be fully described. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: PolymChem 45: 1–15, 2007

This review highlights recent developments of halogen bonding in materials and biological sciences with a short discussion on the nature of the interaction.