Tuneable mechanical properties in low molecular weight gels

The mechanical properties of gels are critical to the final targeted applications. Depending on the application, different properties may be required. Here, we show that the mechanical strength and ability to recover of gels formed using a low molecular weight gelator can be controlled by two independent factors (i) the volume fraction of co-solvent (in this case DMSO) in the system and (ii) the temperature cycle used. These differences correlate with the large scale structure of the network that is formed from the self-assembled fibres. This opens up the potential to prepare gels with very different properties at the same final conditions, allowing the effect of microstructure to be probed.