Aromatic groups are introduced into the end peripherals of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) core-based organic/inorganic hybrid supramolecules to get a novel dendrimer gelator POSS-Z-Asp(OBzl) (POSS-ASP), which have eight aspartate derivative arms to make full use of strong π-π stacking forces to get strong supramolecular gels in addition to multiple hydrogen bindings and van der Waals interactions. POSS-ASP can self-assemble into three-dimensional nanoscale gel networks to provide hybrid physical gels especially with strong mechanical properties and fast-recovery behaviors. Two totally different morphologies of the connected spherical particle structures and banded ultralong fibers are observed owing to the polarity of solvents confirmed by the scanning electron microscopy, polarized optical microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy techniques, expecting the existing various self-assembly models and illustrating the peripherals of the dendrimer and the polarity of solvents having huge influences in the supramolecular self-assembly mechanism. What is more, the thermal stability, rheological properties, and network architecture information have also been investigated via tube-inversion, rotational rheometer, and powder X-ray diffraction methods, the results of which confirm the two different gel formation mechanisms that make POSS-ASP to exhibit two totally different thermal and mechanical properties. Such a study reports a new gelation system in organic or organic/aqueous mixed solvents, which can be helpful for investigating the relationship of dendritic supramolecular gelation and different polarity solvents during the supramolecular self-assembly process of gelators.

The benzene ring of low-molecular-weight gelators provides strong intermolecular forces but increases molecular spacing during self-assembly. To explore both of the above influences on the gel properties, we synthesize two gelators (Glu-CBZ and Glu-DPA) consisting of the same terminal long side chain but different aliphatic functional groups. The aliphatic functional groups are carbobenzoxy group and diphenyl phosphate group. The self-assembly driving forces, self-organization patterns, network morphologies, rheological properties, and the influences of solvents are researched through H NMR spectra, Fourier transform infrared spectra, field-emission scanning electron microscopy images, rheological characterizations curves, tube-inversion experiment, and calculation of van't Hoff plots. The results show that the carbobenzoxy group of Glu-CBZ makes molecules pack more tightly such that it improves the gel properties during static equilibrium. Whereas the diphenyl phosphate group of Glu-DPA provides stronger intermolecular forces, performing outstandingly during dynamic equilibrium. It is advantageous to further investigate the competitive relationship in gel system between the increased number of functional groups and the consequent steric effect.

A novel fluorescence chemosensor that can quickly on-site detect synthetic drugs and undergo prescreening is first reported. An eight tetraphenylethene (TPE)-modified polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) dendrimer is designed and synthesized as an aggregation-induced emission (AIE) chemosensor, which exhibits great enhancement of unique monomer emission in pure tetrahydrofuran (THF) and AIE emission in THF/water, thanks to forming different self-assembly morphologies. In addition, POSS-TPE can sensitively detect methamphetamine and ketamine even in artificial saliva by noncovalent interaction forces. It has great potential to be a new widely applicable AIE chemosensor for aromatic molecules.

meet the requirement of bend or fold in most situations. But some devices like biomimetic epidermal electronics or implantable electronic devices need to adapt the large complex deformation of skins or biological tissues, which cause the idea that stretch ability is regarded as a key factor of designing devices. [10] And in the area of liquid display, traditional liquid crystal (LC) materials have been used in our life for so long time, but they could not be universally used in the deformable devices owing to their natural properties of flow and orderliness, and they are far more likely to flow to everywhere with no fixed shape and show cluttered arrangement mode influenced by external force, much less the application in stretchable devices.To overcome this weakness of LC mole cules, gelators are added to firm the LC molecules' shapes through 3D gel net work, finally developing a new special kind of soft materials which exhibit both LC materials' advantages and gels' unique natures including flowability, mechanical behavior, heat stability, and so on. Considering LC materials have diverse stim uliresponsive properties [11][12][13] and many device applications such as LC gratings, [14] polymerstabilized blue phase (PSBP) I film, [15] or multiresponsive composite films, [16] the combina tion of LC materials and gels will help create more possibili ties to prepare multifunctional materials and devices. Previous study results [17] have shown that LC gel would produce vast transmittance differences through the transformation between light scattering and light transmission by LC molecules' stim uliresponsive properties such as photoresponse, electrore sponse, temperature response, and magnetic response. [14,[18][19][20][21][22] And this method could greatly simplify the LC devices' struc ture by abandoning the use of Polaroid. For example, Jang and coworkers [23] reported a light scattering display using dendritic physical gel. Kato and coworkers [24][25][26] had prepared various rigid light scattering cells. Levy and coworkers [27] made a huge and rigid electrooptical window based on liquidcrystal disper sions in sol-gel matrices. Xie and coworkers [28] prepared LC gels through the selfassembly of sorbitol derivatives as gela tors in 5CB, showing its potential application in selfsupporting lightscattering electrooptical displays. Zhao and coworkers [29,30] reported a fluorescent LC gels and shown a high contrast of photoluminescence. In general, these light scattering LC devices all present rigid condition and have the features of A stretchable, flexible electroresponsive liquid-crystal (LC) device with extremely simple structure is reported. It exhibits excellent light-transmission control even during successive 45% stretching, which is due to the combination of a super-strong LC gel network (5CB/POSS-G1-BOC) and transparent conductive electrodes composed of silver nanowires (AgNWs) embedded in polyurethane (PU). The uniaxial tensile deformation mechanism of the gel network is also explained by the uniform distributi...

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