Issue 18, 2009

Fabrication and properties of cucurbit[6]uril induced thermo-responsive supramolecular hydrogels

Abstract

Novel thermo-responsive supramolecular hydrogels consisting of cucurbit[6]uril(CB[6]) and butan-1-aminium 4-methylbenzenesulfonate (BAMB) were prepared, which were based on hydrophobic interaction, π–π stacking interaction and van der Walls interaction. Furthermore, hydrogels were not only sensitive to the thermal stimulation, but also showed an interesting property of the inducing action of CB[6] threaded in [2]pseudorotaxane. In this paper, the external morphology and sol–gel transition process of hydrogels were observed by polarized microscopy observation (PMO) and digital camera. DSC results show that the gel–sol transition temperature rose with increasing the concentration of either BMAB or CB[6]. The characteristics of the xerogels were determined by 1H NMR, FT-IR, SEM and TGA. It was found that the CB[6] was threaded in the butyl amine units of BAMB, and the inducing action of CB[6] threaded in [2]pseudorotaxane was essential for the hydrogel formation. Only when the concentrations of both BAMB and CB[6] reached certain values, hydrogels with three-dimensional network structure could be formed. And the viscosity changes for increasing the temperature of the hydrogel systems with different concentration of either CB[6] or BMAB were determined by the rheometer. A possible model was proposed to explain the driving forcing of the gelation.

Graphical abstract: Fabrication and properties of cucurbit[6]uril induced thermo-responsive supramolecular hydrogels

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
07 Apr 2009
Accepted
12 Jun 2009
First published
17 Jul 2009

Soft Matter, 2009,5, 3511-3516

Fabrication and properties of cucurbit[6]uril induced thermo-responsive supramolecular hydrogels

H. Yang, Y. Tan and Y. Wang, Soft Matter, 2009, 5, 3511 DOI: 10.1039/B906983F

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