1 Organic Letters Novel C 3V -Symmetric Tripodal Scaffold, Triethtyl cis,cis,cis-2,5,8-Tribenzyltrindane-2,5,8-tricarboxylate for the Construction of Artificial Receptors Heung-Jin Choi, * Yeon Sil Park, Seok Hun Yun, Hong-Seok Kim, Chan Sik Cho, Kwangnak Ko, and Kyo Han Ahn Department of Industrial Chemistry, and Department of Chemical Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, 702-701, Korea and Department of Chemistry, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, 790-784, Korea SUPPORTING INFORMATION General. Melting points are uncorrected. NMR spectra were recorded on a Bruker Avance Digital 400 (400 MHz) Spectrometer. 1 H and 13 C NMR chemical shifts are given relative to TMS. IR spectra were recorded on a Mattson Galaxy FT-IR 7020A spectrometer. Mass Spectra were determined on a HP6890 with EI mode and a HP1100 with API-ES mode. Di-n-butyl ether, tetrahydrofurane and toluene were distilled from sodium/benzophenone under a nitrogen atmosphere gas before use. 2,4,6-Tris(chloromethyl)mesitylene To a stirred mixture of paraformaldehyde (10.8 g, 0.36 mmol), concentrated hydrochloric acid (52 g, 0.52 mmol) and sodium chloride (1.87 g, 0.032 mmol) was added mesitylene (7.2 g, 0.06 mmol). The mixture was heated under reflux for 5 h and cooled to room temperature. White wax-like organic material precipitated from reaction medium was separated by decanting off the aqueous layer. To this organic material was added again paraformaldehyde (10.8 g, 0.36 mmol), concentrated hydrochloric acid (52 g, 0.52 mmol), sodium chloride (1.87 g, 0.032 mmol) and zinc