Cryptands were introduced by Jean-Marie Lehn in 1969 as cage-shaped selective ligands for alkali and alkaline-earth metal ions, which lie at the heart of supramolecular chemistry. This book reports on much of the research in the field since the '70s, and looks at, amongst other topics, metal coordination chemistry, anion coordination chemistry, the encapsulation and taming of reactive anions, the formation of cascade complexes and the design of fluorescent sensors for ionic analytes.Cryptands and Cryptates has been written as a coursebook, structured as a series of lectures for graduate students or advanced researchers in chemistry, materials science, chemical biology and nanotechnology. It is fully illustrated to show experiments and results, and is intended to stimulate further interest in this fertile field of supramolecular chemistry.Chapters are preceded by a Foreword by Jean-Marie Lehn.