Chapter 2
Supramolecular Gels
Abstract Supramolecular gels constructed by the assembly of small molecules
have been extensively investigated. The gels bearing functional groups also exhibit
intelligent and potential applications in the fields of tissue engineering and wound
healing, drug delivery, templating or transcribing self-assembly morphology,
molecular electronics, sensing and so forth. Due to various kinds of weak
non-covalent interactions, abundant architectures are constructed and are smart to
the external stimuli, such as temperature, light, mechanical stress, chemical, pH
value. Therefore, supramolecular gels are sorted and stated according to different
stimuli in this chapter.
Keywords Supramolecular gels Á Non-covalent interaction Á Driving force
Stimuli-responsive gels
Supramolecular gels consist of three-dimensional networks that are formed by
molecular self-assembly. In the process of gelation, the gelator molecules
self-assemble to form fibrous architectures in nanometre scale through intermolecular non-covalent interactions. They in turn build up a micrometer-scale
entangled three-dimensional network entrapping/immobilizing large organic solvent molecules, preventing the solvent molecules from flowing with the formation
of viscoelastic materials as supramolecular gels. Hence, a gel could be defined as “a
colloidal network that is expanded throughout its whole volume by a fluid”.
Strong hydrogen bonding such as urea and amide is widely explored to construct
fibrous structures, as well as other driving forces, including p–p stacking interaction, donor–acceptor interaction, metal coordination, solvophobic forces (hydrophobic forces for gels in water) and van der Waals interactions, could also
interlink between small molecules for self-assembly into various architectures.
Subsequently, the architectures twist and knit into three-dimensional network with
the formation of gels (Fig. 2.1) [1–3]. Importantly, once the supramolecular gels
prepared from small gelator molecules with few functional groups exhibit intelliYongguang Li and Yeye Ai contributed together to this chapter.
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018
J. Zhang et al., Gel Chemistry, Lecture Notes in Chemistry 96,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6881-2_2
9
Supramolecular Gels
Abstract Supramolecular gels constructed by the assembly of small molecules
have been extensively investigated. The gels bearing functional groups also exhibit
intelligent and potential applications in the fields of tissue engineering and wound
healing, drug delivery, templating or transcribing self-assembly morphology,
molecular electronics, sensing and so forth. Due to various kinds of weak
non-covalent interactions, abundant architectures are constructed and are smart to
the external stimuli, such as temperature, light, mechanical stress, chemical, pH
value. Therefore, supramolecular gels are sorted and stated according to different
stimuli in this chapter.
Keywords Supramolecular gels Á Non-covalent interaction Á Driving force
Stimuli-responsive gels
Supramolecular gels consist of three-dimensional networks that are formed by
molecular self-assembly. In the process of gelation, the gelator molecules
self-assemble to form fibrous architectures in nanometre scale through intermolecular non-covalent interactions. They in turn build up a micrometer-scale
entangled three-dimensional network entrapping/immobilizing large organic solvent molecules, preventing the solvent molecules from flowing with the formation
of viscoelastic materials as supramolecular gels. Hence, a gel could be defined as “a
colloidal network that is expanded throughout its whole volume by a fluid”.
Strong hydrogen bonding such as urea and amide is widely explored to construct
fibrous structures, as well as other driving forces, including p–p stacking interaction, donor–acceptor interaction, metal coordination, solvophobic forces (hydrophobic forces for gels in water) and van der Waals interactions, could also
interlink between small molecules for self-assembly into various architectures.
Subsequently, the architectures twist and knit into three-dimensional network with
the formation of gels (Fig. 2.1) [1–3]. Importantly, once the supramolecular gels
prepared from small gelator molecules with few functional groups exhibit intelliYongguang Li and Yeye Ai contributed together to this chapter.
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018
J. Zhang et al., Gel Chemistry, Lecture Notes in Chemistry 96,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6881-2_2
9