Rapid industrialization and the indiscriminate use of fossil fuels have generated an impact that is affecting the climate worldwide. Among the substances that are causing climate change are several gases such as carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O) and sulphur hexafluoride (SF₆), among others. Particularly, carbon dioxide is one of the substances that has attracted the most attention from researchers, as it is responsible for more than three quarters of greenhouse gases. Because of this, many efforts have been directed towards the capture of CO₂, its separation, adsorption and transformation into products that are less harmful to the environment or that even have added value in the industry. For this purpose, the use of different types of macrocycles has been explored mainly in the last 5 years. This review seeks to present the advances that have occurred in recent years in the capture and transformation of CO₂ by different methods, to finally focus on the capture and transformation through macrocycle systems such as azacompounds, heterometallic macrocycles, calixpyrrols, modified cyclodextrins and metallic porphyrins, among others.

Resorcinarenes are polyhydroxylated platforms consisting of 4, 5, 8, or more units of resorcinol. The numbers refer to the number of resorcinol units, with 4-unit platforms being the most stable. Investigation into their use in pharmaceutical applications has increased due to high versatility and functionalization. They exhibit significant flexibility due to their methylene bridges and to the interactions of hydrogen bridges and van der Waals forces. These platforms can be used in an increasing number of applications, which include the functionalization of nanoparticles and relevant materials, the synthesis of catalysts, the removal of contaminants, and analytical separations in analytes such as benzodiazepines and norepinephrine. For this last application, resorcinarenes are functionalized with specific important functional groups. Polymers were developed in the 20th century for the development of materials with significant improvements in thermal and mechanical properties. They are cross-linked polymeric structures, mainly made up of monomers such as styrene, divinylbenzene acrylate, vinylpyridine, and vinyl acetate, among others. They often have a homogeneous, porous structure, but this structure can vary significantly depending on the type of solvent used. Therefore, they have been applied in the functionalization of the polyhydroxylated platforms. In this review, the structure, properties, and synthesis of resorcinarenes, as well as the use of polymeric matrices, are analyzed, emphasizing the functionalization of organic polymers using resorcinarenes. Furthermore, the respective applications in controlled drug delivery, pharmaceutical transport, and therapeutics, which are diverse and show promising growth, will be explored.