Molecular Organogels. Soft Matter Comprised of Low-Molecular-Mass Organic Gelators and Organic Liquids

Abstract

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 (ALS molecules 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.