Issue 20, 2011
From the journal:

Soft Matter

Tuneable mechanical properties in low molecular weight gels†

Lin Chen,a   Jaclyn Raeburn,a   Sam Sutton,a   David G. Spiller,b   James Williams,a   James S. Sharp,c   Peter C. Griffiths,d   Richard K. Heenan,e   Stephen M. King,e   Alison Paul,d   Steve Furzeland,f   Derek Atkinsf  and  Dave J. Adams*a  

* Corresponding authors

a Department of Chemistry, University of Liverpool, Crown Street, Liverpool, U.K
E-mail: d.j.adams@liverpool.ac.uk

b Centre for Cell Imaging, School of Biological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Crown Street, Liverpool, U.K

c School of Physics and Astronomy and Nottingham, Nanotechnology and NanoScience Centre, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, U.K

d School of Chemistry, Cardiff University, Main Building, Park Place, Cardiff, U.K

e Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Didcot, Oxfordshire, U.K

f Unilever R&D, Colworth House, Sharnbrook, Bedford, U.K

Abstract

The mechanical properties of gels are critical to the final targeted applications. Depending on the application, different properties may be required. Here, we show that the mechanical strength and ability to recover of gels formed using a low molecular weight gelator can be controlled by two independent factors (i) the volume fraction of co-solvent (in this case DMSO) in the system and (ii) the temperature cycle used. These differences correlate with the large scale structure of the network that is formed from the self-assembled fibres. This opens up the potential to prepare gels with very different properties at the same final conditions, allowing the effect of microstructure to be probed.

Graphical abstract: Tuneable mechanical properties in low molecular weight gels

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C1SM05827D
Article type
Paper
Submitted
05 May 2011
Accepted
24 May 2011
First published
15 Jun 2011

Soft Matter, 2011,7, 9721-9727

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Tuneable mechanical properties in low molecular weight gels

L. Chen, J. Raeburn, S. Sutton, D. G. Spiller, J. Williams, J. S. Sharp, P. C. Griffiths, R. K. Heenan, S. M. King, A. Paul, S. Furzeland, D. Atkins and D. J. Adams, Soft Matter, 2011, 7, 9721 DOI: 10.1039/C1SM05827D

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