The cage effect in chemistry

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

 describes how properties of a molecule

Molecule

A molecule is an electrically neutral group of at least two atoms held together by covalent chemical bonds. Molecules are distinguished from ions by their electrical charge...

 are affected by its surroundings.

In a solvent

Solvent

A solvent is a liquid, solid, or gas that dissolves another solid, liquid, or gaseous solute, resulting in a solution that is soluble in a certain volume of solvent at a specified temperature...

 a molecule is often more accurately described existing in a cage of solvent molecules, the so-called solvent cage. Reactions occur when a molecule occasionally "jumps out" and meets another molecule. Typical cage lifetime in a solvent cage 10⁻¹¹s

Other examples include how in a gas at low pressure a normally highly reactive and short lived molecule can be contained.
Also, specific host-guest interactions occur in inclusion compound

Inclusion compound

In host-guest chemistry an inclusion compound is a complex in which one chemical compound forms a cavity in which molecules of a second "guest" compound are located. The definition of inclusion compounds is very broad, extending to channels formed between molecules in a crystal lattice in which...

s.