Affiliation:
1. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Xi'an University of Science and Technology Xi'an 710054 China
2. Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry Ministry of Education School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Shaanxi Normal University Xi'an 710119 China
Abstract
AbstractHeat‐set supramolecular gels exhibited totally opposite phase behaviors of dissolution upon cooling and gelation on heating. They are commonly discovered by chance and their rational design remains a great challenge. Herein, a rational design strategy is proposed to realize heat‐set supramolecular hydrogelation through regulation of the hydrophilic–lipophilic balance of the system. A newly synthesized amphiphile hydrogelator with pyrene embedded in its lipophilic terminal can self‐assemble into a hydrogel through a heating and cooling cycle. However, the host–guest complex of the gelator and hydrophilic γ‐cyclodextrin (γ‐CyD) results in a sol at room temperature. Thus, heat‐set hydrogelation is realized from the sol state in a controllable manner. Heat‐set gelation mechanism is revealed by exploring critical heat‐set supramolecular gelation and the related findings provide a general strategy for developing new functional molecular gels with tunable hydrophilic–lipophilic balance.
Funder
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Subject
Biomaterials,Biotechnology,General Materials Science,General Chemistry