To support the hypothesis about the importance of shape persistence of the guest molecule, we also tested tetrahydrodibenzocyclooctene 7 (an intermediate in the synthesis 57 of 6). Using an excess of 7-the most flexible member of the series-only ~25 mol% of T was converted to C under otherwise the same reaction conditions (Figure ). As expected, guest 7 was encapsulated within both T and C (Figures ).