Issue 28, 2021

Exploiting and controlling gel-to-crystal transitions in multicomponent supramolecular gels

Abstract

Multicomponent supramolecular gels provide opportunities to form materials that are not accessible when using the single components alone. Different scenarios are possible when mixing multiple components, from complete co-assembly (mixing of the components within the self-assembled structures formed) to complete self-sorting such that each structure contains only one of the components. Most examples of multicomponent gels that currently exist form stable gels. Here, we show that this can be used to control the mechanical properties of the gels, but what is probably most exciting is that we show that we can use a magnetic field to control the shape of the crystals. The gelling component aligns in a magnetic field and so results in anisotropic crystals being formed.

Graphical abstract: Exploiting and controlling gel-to-crystal transitions in multicomponent supramolecular gels

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
27 Apr 2021
Accepted
11 Jun 2021
First published
14 Jun 2021
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2021,12, 9720-9725

Exploiting and controlling gel-to-crystal transitions in multicomponent supramolecular gels

D. Giuri, L. J. Marshall, B. Dietrich, D. McDowall, L. Thomson, J. Y. Newton, C. Wilson, R. Schweins and D. J. Adams, Chem. Sci., 2021, 12, 9720 DOI: 10.1039/D1SC02347K

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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