Journal article

Norbornene chaotropic salts as low molecular mass ionic organogelators (LMIOGs)

JR Engstrom, AJ Savyasachi, M Parhizkar, A Sutti, CS Hawes, JM White, T Gunnlaugsson, FM Pfeffer

Chemical Science | ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY | Published : 2018

Abstract

Phenylalanine functionalised norbornene (9:Na) functions as a potent, low molecular-mass (MW = 333 Da) ionic organogelator with a minimum gelating concentration of 0.5 wt% in THF, i-PrOH, 1,4-dioxane and n-BuOH. Fibrous crystals form in the gel and X-ray crystallography identified a cation mediated helical assembly process controlled by the chirality of the phenylalanine. In addition to excellent gelating properties 9:Na readily forms aqueous biphasic and triphasic systems.

University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants


Funding Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge Dr Surya Subianto for insightful discussions. FP and JE thank the Deakin Centre for Chemistry and Biotechnology and also the Australian Research Council (DP140100227) for financial support. This research was supported in part by the Australian Research Council World Class Future Fibre Industry Transformation Research Hub (IH140100018). TG thanks Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) for financial support (SFI PI Award 13/IA/1865). Donna Edwards is acknowledged for the photos of the triphasic system and gels (Scheme 1, Fig. 3 and 7).