Richard G. Weiss

ADVERTISEMENT RETURN TO ISSUEPREVArticleNEXTLow Molecular Mass Gelators of Organic Liquids and the Properties of Their GelsPierre Terech and Richard G. WeissView Author Information Laboratoire Physico-Chimie Moléculaire, UMR 585, Département de Recherche Fondamentale sur la Matière Condensée, C.E.A.-Grenoble, 17, Rue des Martyrs, 38054 Grenoble Cédex 09, France, and Department of Chemistry, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057-1227 Cite this: Chem. Rev. 1997, 97, 8, 3133–3160Publication Date (Web):December 18, 1997Publication History Received10 March 1997Revised2 July 1997Published online18 December 1997Published inissue 1 December 1997https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/cr9700282https://doi.org/10.1021/cr9700282research-articleACS PublicationsCopyright © 1997 American Chemical SocietyRequest reuse permissionsArticle Views17869Altmetric-Citations2857LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InRedditEmail Other access optionsGet e-Alertsclose SUBJECTS:Aggregation,Gelation,Gels,Liquids,Molecules Get e-Alerts

Nanostructured materials have many forms. One that has been somewhat neglected until recently is organogels, especially those whose three-dimensional structural networks are based on the self-assembly of low molecular-mass organic gelators (LMOGs). These thermoreversible materials consist of a small amount of LMOG and an organic liquid. Because of the wide diversity of structures of molecules known to function as LMOGs and the dearth of direct information concerning how they pack in their gel assemblies, it has been difficult to decipher the salient features that constitute an LMOG. The stepwise simplification of LMOG structures and the development of methods to determine their packing in organogels at the micrometer-to-angstrom distance regimes are discussed for the simplest known LMOGs to the more complex, such as CEP (see Figure), which is known to form molecular wires when gelling chloroform. Work from the laboratory of the authors is emphasized. In addition, an overview of current and potential applications for these materials is presented.

This Account presents recent advances in understanding how and why dilute solutions/sols of low-molecular-mass organic gelators (LMOGs) undergo microscopic phase separation to form self-assembled fibrillar networks in molecular organogels. Concepts are illustrated structurally at the subnanometer (molecular) to several millimeter (bulk) length scales and dynamically over time scales that follow the assembly of supersaturated solutions/sols into gel phases. Examples include both structurally complicated (ALSmolecules with aromatic, linking, and steroidal groups) and simple (n-alkanes or n-alkanes along whose chains a hetero-group has been inserted) LMOGs in a wide range of organic liquids.

A Perspective is presented on the history and current understanding of molecular gels and the factors that must be considered to characterize them. The abilities of the most important structural, dynamic, and rheological tools available currently to provide the information necessary to follow the formation of a molecular gel from its initial sol phase and then to define it at different distance and time scales are discussed. Approaches to determining a priori when a molecule will gelate a selected liquid, as well as possible methodologies for overcoming current limitations in understanding molecular gels, are presented. Finally, some of the many potential and realized applications for these materials are enumerated.