Gelators for organic liquids based on self-assembly: a new facet of supramolecular and combinatorial chemistry

The recent years have been witness to a rapidly growing interest in the self-assembly phenomenon of low molecular weight organogelators. Herein, we highlight the recent developments in the discovery of new gelator systems and the potential methods for useful stabilisation of gels. Additionally, the recent progress in gel-characterisation, with novel analytical methods and the practical application of gel systems are also reviewed. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.