The synthesis of two kinds of water-soluble calixarenes-p-sulfonic acid calyx [ n] arene and p-sulfonic acid thiacalixarenes were introduced. The synthesis proposal was  mature and the post-processing was simple. The p-sulfonic acid calyx [ n] arene had good thermal stability, which provided a good basis for the subsequent application research. The application of sulfonated calixarenes in catalysis was illustrated. The strong acidic group meet the acid conditions in the catalytic reactions. In addition, compared with other types of acid catalyst, sulfonated calixarene was easy to separate from the reaction mixture and recycle and reuse, so it was a green organic catalyst; Finally, it showed good performance when it was used as the parent compound in coordination, complexation and molecular ion recognition.