Department of Chemical Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Julianalaan 136, 2628 BL Delft, The Netherlands.
Nat Chem. 2013 May;5(5):433-7. doi: 10.1038/nchem.1617. Epub 2013 Apr 7.
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.
低分子量凝胶在从石化工业到医疗保健和组织工程等领域具有巨大的应用潜力。这些超分子凝胶通常是亚稳材料，这意味着它们的性质至少部分是动力学控制的。在这里，我们展示了如何通过催化作用直接控制这些材料的力学性能和结构。我们展示了如何通过原位催化凝胶形成分子来加速超分子水凝胶的形成，从而极大地提高其力学性能。使用酸或亲核苯胺催化，可以在环境条件下，从简单的可溶性构筑块出发，在几分钟内制得具有可调凝胶强度的超分子水凝胶。通过使用催化剂改变凝胶形成分子的形成速率，可以影响整体胶凝速率和所得凝胶形态，从而可以获得具有改善的机械强度和外观的亚稳凝胶状态，尽管凝胶组成相同。
