Rheometry of an androstanol steroid derivative paramagnetic organogel. Methodology for a comparison with a fatty acid organogel

This paper compares and contrasts the behavior of two different gelators using rheological and neutron scattering methods. The flow properties of a steroid-made paramagnetic organogel in cyclohexane are presented. The original gelator STNO is important in the class of organogels as being one of the most documented and as such is a good candidate for comparisons with another reference system, the 12-hydroxy stearic acid (HSA) gel. The linear viscoelastic regime of deformations of STNO gels is identified and analyzed in the context of self-assembled fibrillar networks. The linear elasticity scales with the concentration as G' alpha C-2 similarly with HSA organogels, and both systems can be considered as cellular materials. Rheological and neutron scattering experiments show that the kinetics of gel formation exhibits long equilibration times corresponding to the elaboration of entangled fibrillar aggregates. Comparison of the linear elasticities between STNO and HSA gels demonstrates that HSA gels are much more stiffer (G'(HSA)/G'(STNO)similar to 2700). Contributions from the cross-sectional sizes, the mesh size of the networks, the solubility concentrations, and the Young's modulus of the materials are discussed. Non-linear flow properties are also compared using thixotropic loops. They indicate that the transduction of the chirality from the molecular to the supramolecular stages is more efficient with STNO gels having strong chiral junction zones. Simplified scattering and optical protocols are proposed to facilitate comparisons between different organogels. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.