Abstract
Low-molecular-weight gels show great potential for application in fields ranging from the petrochemical industry to healthcare and tissue engineering. These supramolecular gels are often metastable materials, which implies that their properties are, at least partially, kinetically controlled. Here we show how the mechanical properties and structure of these materials can be controlled directly by catalytic action. We show how in situ catalysis of the formation of gelator molecules can be used to accelerate the formation of supramolecular hydrogels, which drastically enhances their resulting mechanical properties. Using acid or nucleophilic aniline catalysis, it is possible to make supramolecular hydrogels with tunable gel-strength in a matter of minutes, under ambient conditions, starting from simple soluble building blocks. By changing the rate of formation of the gelator molecules using a catalyst, the overall rate of gelation and the resulting gel morphology are affected, which provides access to metastable gel states with improved mechanical strength and appearance despite an identical gelator composition.
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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the European Commission (a Marie Curie European Reintegration grant, R.E.) and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (a VENI grant (R.E.), a VICI grant (J.H.v.E., J.B.) and an ECHO grant (R.E., J.H.v.E., J.M.P.)) for funding.
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J.B., R.E. and J.H.v.E. designed the experiments, J.B., J.M.P., C.B.M., F.L., E.M. and R.E. performed the experiments and analysed the data, J.M.P., C.B.M., L.v.d.M., C.M. and R.E. synthesized the molecules, R.E. and J.H.v.E. guided the research and all authors contributed to discussing the results and editing the manuscript. R.E. wrote the manuscript.
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Boekhoven, J., Poolman, J., Maity, C. et al. Catalytic control over supramolecular gel formation. Nature Chem 5, 433–437 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1617
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1617
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