Molecular Arrangement and Thermal Properties of Bisamide Organogelators in the Solid State.

The crystal structure and phase behavior of bisamide gelators are investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and molecular modeling, aiming at a better understanding of bisamide gel systems. A homologous series of bisamide model compounds (BAs) was prepared with the (CH) spacer between the two amide groups, where varies from 5 to 10, and with two symmetric C17 alkyl tails. With increasing spacer length, the thermal properties show a clear odd-even effect, which was characterized using our newly developed analytical model DSC(T).