Designing Stimuli-Responsive Supramolecular Gels by Tuning the Non-Covalent Interactions of the Functional Groups.

The physical characteristics of a supramolecular gel are greatly influenced by the nature and arrangement of functional groups in the gelator. This work focuses on the impact of the functional groups, specifically the hydroxyl group, on the stimuli-responsive properties of a gel. We used a -symmetric benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxamide (BTA) platform, which was attached to the methyl ester of phenylalanine (MPBTA) and tyrosine (MTBTA).

Single Crystal to Single Crystal Transformation of Porous Materials Based on Zinc Nodes and Mercaptobenzoic Acid.

Porous coordination polymers (PCPs) are an excellent class of porous crystalline materials with tunable properties and intriguing potential applications spanning multiple disciplines. In this work, we report the synthesis and characterization of a PCP (HI-103) based on 4,4'-dithiodibenzoic acid ligand and zinc nitrate with two DMF molecules residing in the porous network. The stability of the porous network was analyzed by heating the compound at 60.

Supramolecular Gels Based on -Symmetric Amides: Application in Anion-Sensing and Removal of Dyes from Water.

We modified -symmetric benzene-1,3,5--amide (BTA) by introducing flexible linkers in order to generate an N-centered BTA (N-BTA) molecule. The N-BTA compound formed gels in alcohols and aqueous mixtures of high-polar solvents. Rheological studies showed that the DMSO/water (1:1, /) gels were mechanically stronger compared to other gels, and a similar trend was observed for thermal stability.

Nanoscale assembly of enantiomeric supramolecular gels driven by the nature of solvents.

Understanding the key parameters that control the self-assembly process is critical to predict self-assembly modes in multi-component systems, which will lead to the development of nanofibrous materials with tuneable properties. Enantiomeric amino acid-based low-molecular-weight gelators (LMWGs) were mixed in polar (polar protic) and aromatic apolar (aromatic) solvents and compared to their individual counterparts to probe the effect of solvent polarity on the self-assembly process. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) reveals that xerogels of individual components display hollow needles in polar protic solvents, while chiral coils are observed in aromatic solvents.