Organic salts and aromatic substrates in two-component gel phase formation: the study of properties and release processes

What is it about?

In this work, we studied how the presence of small organic molecules as guests affects the thermal stability, morphology and gelation kinetics of a supramolecular gel formed by a diimidazolium salt bearing a naphthalene disulfonate anion, in 1-propanol. We also looked at the kinetics of release of the guest molecules upon contacting the gel with a solvent. To this aim, we studied the effect of the structure of the guest, gelator concentration, the nature of the solvent and contacy surface area.

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Why is it important?

The results obtained have practical importance when considering the application of supramolecular gels as confined reaction media, given that reagents or products behave as guest molecules. Furthermore the study of the solvent extraction of the guest molecule from the gel pointed out that the most important factor in determining the rate of guest release is its ability to diffuse into the porous structure of the gel, rather than the polarity of the solvent.