Two-component dendritic gel: Influence of the aromatic chain length on the organogel stability and supramolecular architecture

we report the influence of the aromatic chain length on the organogel stability and supramolecular structure. First, we designed and readily prepared a two-component dendritic gelator based on a combination of a third-generation poly(urethane amide) dendron and a rigid aromatic spacer chain (e.g., 1,4-diazine, 4,4'-dipyridy, 1,4-bis(pyrid-4-yl)benzene, 4,4-di(4-pyridyl)biphenyl) in 2:1 molar ratio. All two-component gelators were easy to gelate aromatic solvents, especially toluene and p-xylene. When the length of aromatic spacer chain was increased, the gel-to-solution transition temperature first increased, and then decreased. The supramolecular structures and morphologies in xerogel samples of gelators have been carefully studied using the transmission electron microscopy and the atomic force microscopy characterizations. We demonstrated that the stability and supramolecular structures of organogels could be well controlled and regulated by simple length regulation of the aromatic spacer chain in two-component gelator, and thus we believe that applying this kind of method will provide significant new insights for the fabrication of soft materials for various applications. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.