Synthesis Of L-phenylalanine Derived Hydrogelator And The Research Of Supramolecular Hydrogel

Many solvents can be gelated by some compounds of low molecular weight at low concentrations (typically <1wt %) and form thermally-reversible viscoelastic liquidlike or solidlike materials that are called supramolecular gels or supramolecular organogels. Such low molecular-weight compounds are called"gelator". The hydrogels forms when the water is gelated. The gelators can self-assemble into nanoscale superstructures through hydrogen bonding,Ï€-Ï€stacking, van der Waals, hydrophobic interactions to create three-dimensional networks.This paper presents novel L-phenylalanine derived hydrogelators NP18PB. The hydrogelator can make water gelated at a low concentration. It is found that hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions play an important role on the formation of supramolecular hydrogel by FTIR, Fluorescence Spectrum and XRD. FE-SEM and POM showed that NP18PB self-assembled into fiber-like aggregates in the water.Using the fiber-like aggregates assembled by another hydrogelator TC18PheBu in water as templates, tetrabutyl titanate as precursors, tetrabutyl titanate adsorbed onto the surfaces of fiber-like aggregates, and then polymerized by sol-gel polymerization, Pearl-necklace-like TiO2 nanowires formed after calcinations. The possible mechanism of the formation of the Pearl-necklace-like TiO2 nanowires was discussed by FE-SEM, XRD and FTIR. The electrostatic interaction between cationic gelator and anionic metal oxide precursor plays an important role in the transferring process.