Understanding gel-to-crystal transitions in supramolecular gels

Abstract

Most supramolecular gels are stable or assumed to be stable over time, and aging effects are often not studied. However, some gels do show clear changes on aging, and a...

Dipeptide self-assembly into water-channels and gel biomaterial

“…[13][14][15] The most widely used strategy in their design is based on the use of polyaromatic N-caps, which can easily stack and drive self-aggregation. 13,16 Conversely, unprotected dipeptides are more unpredictable in terms of their ability to self-organize into defined nanomorphologies to enable hierarchical assembly into macroscopic materials.…”

Personal Perspective on Understanding Low Molecular Weight Gels

“…My personal feeling is that this is not terribly useful since this simply informs as to molecules that crystallize and hence not the gel phase. Indeed, we have recently shown conclusively that the crystal phase and the gel phase are different . The synthon approach , suggests using specific functional groups to build in the necessary interactions, but this still essentially involves synthetic permutation of a preexisting gelator.…”

“…Indeed, we have recently shown conclusively that the crystal phase and the gel phase are different. 10 The synthon approach 11,12 suggests using specific functional groups to build in the necessary interactions, but this still essentially involves synthetic permutation of a preexisting gelator. There has been some recent progress in terms of understanding gelation in terms of solvent parameters, 13,14 but this does not seem to allow prediction of what molecules will form a gel but more an understanding as to what solvents a particular gelator will gel.…”

Single-atom substitution enables supramolecular diversity from dipeptide building blocks

“…14–16 The most popular approach for their design includes the use of polyaromatic N-caps, which facilitate hydrophobically driven self-aggregation and ordered stacking. 14,17 Derivatization can be extended to both termini, introducing non-ionizable groups to reduce the hydrophilic character and, thus, the minimal concentration required for assembly and/or gelation. 18–21 Halogenation is another useful strategy, which has the additional advantage of enabling further non-covalent interactions.…”