A Stimuli‐Responsive Metallohydrogel Exhibiting Cyclohexane‐Like Hydrophobicity

Abstract

Silver(I) forms a hydrogel in the presence of cholate with unusual properties, which are not observed with other cations. Polarity-sensitive probes have shown that the spherical aggregates observed in the gel have 'pockets' with hydrophobicity comparable to that of degassed cyclohexane. The gel exhibited thermo- and mechanoresponsive properties. Color tunability from blue to cyan and green was observed with prodan. The two sol phases of the gel formed by applying stress and temperature showed very different properties.

Supramolecular tripodal Au(i) assemblies in water. Interactions with a pyrene fluorescent probe

“…23,[32][33][34][35] The resulting weak host:guest interactions have been also tested in metal cholate hydrogels in order to compare their stability and to analyse the role gold(I) within this organic matrix. 36,37 Although a variety of metal cholates were shown to form hydrogels, to the best of our knowledge there are not examples of organometallic complexes included within this supramolecular hydrogelator structure.…”

Steroidal supramolecular metallogels

“…Transparent Ag(I)-cholate gel consisted of spherical aggregates of various sizes, which formed a network bonding loosely to each other. 34 The gel was thermoreversible and experienced shear thinning. In addition, the gel formed again after shaking or applying pressure without any loss of mechanical strength.…”

Supramolecular Gelation of Europium and Calcium Cholates through the Nucleation‐Elongation Growth Mechanism

“…[32] Over a century ago, Schryver reported the first metal cholate hydrogel, viz, calcium cholate (CaCh) gel, [33] but further exploration has been done only from 2009, and now several other metal cholate gels and their applications have been reported. [34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42] While a number of metal ions form gels with cholate, we chose calcium and europium cholates (CaCh & EuCh) for detailed studies. CaCh was selected as it showed a clear transition from a transparent sol to a gel ( Figure 1a) slowly (~3 h/25°C), giving sufficient time for kinetic measurements.…”