Improved Efficiency of Molecular-Gel Formation by Adjusting Preorganization of Amino-Acid-Derived Flexible Molecules: A NMR and Thermodynamic study.

The efficiency of the formation of molecular gels of simple derivatives of l-valine and l-isoleucine is greatly improved in different organic solvents when a hexyl fragment is replaced by a bulkier cyclohexyl one. A study using NMR and IR spectroscopy provides information on the preferred conformations of the molecules, indicating that the cyclohexyl moiety precludes intramolecular H bonding and preorganises the system for intermolecular interactions, which are responsible for fiber formation. NMR data of the gels provides thermodynamic data on fibrillization, revealing that the origin of this effect is mainly entropic.