Royal Society of Chemistry, Soft Matter, 32(11), p. 6386-6392
DOI: 10.1039/c5sm01305d
Full text: Unavailable
Currently, design and construction of an intelligent stimuli-responsive gel system is still a significant challenge. We present here a new gel system from which the formation of heat-set gel, conventional gel and irreversible heat-set gel can be achieved in aromatic solvents. This gel system is based on two-component gelators containing a succinamic acid derivative (SAD) and a primary alkyl amine (R-NH2). Increase of temperature to 85 oC, a rarely reported reversible heat-set gel (gel formation with the increase of temperature) is afforded. Addition of fatty acid to the two-component gelators, a conventional gel (gel formation with the decrease of temperature) is formed. When the fatty acid is replaced with dicarboxylic acid, a new heat-set gel is generated, which is irreversible and thermally super-stable. X-ray diffraction analysis reveals that the formation of reversible heat-set gel relies on electrostatic interactions, hydrogen bonds, and hydrophobic interactions. This two-component gelators shows a perfect gel system for formation of diverse gels including heat-set gel, conventional gel and irreversible heat-set gel. The tunable strategy demonstrated in this letter may provide a new way for creation of more functional gels in gel science.