A new family of urea-based low molecular-weight organogelators for environmental remediation: the influence of structure

Peveler, W. J. et al. (2018) A new family of urea-based low molecular-weight organogelators for environmental remediation: the influence of structure. Soft Matter, 14(43), pp. 8821-8827. (doi: 10.1039/C8SM01682H) (PMID:30346465)

Abstract

Gelation processes grant access to a wealth of soft materials with tailorable properties, in applications as diverse as environmental remediation, biomedicene and electronics. Several classes of self-assembling gelators have been studied and employ non-covalent bonds to direct assembly, but recently attention has come to focus on how the overall shape of the gelator molecule impacts its gelation. Here we study a new sub-family of low molecular weight organogelators and explore how steric rearrangement influences their gelation. The gels produced are characterised with X-ray diffraction and Small- Angle neutron scattering (SANS) to probe their ex-situ and in-situ gelation mechanisms. The best examples were then tested for environmental remediation applications, gelling petrol and oils in the presence of water and salts.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: WJP acknowledges a Doctoral Prize Fellowship from the EPSRC (EP/M506448/1) and an LKAS Fellowship from the University of Glasgow. The authors acknowledge the EPSRC for funding UCL’s X-ray diffractometers (EP/K03930X/1). SA acknowledges Welsh Government Sêr Cymru II Welsh Fellowship part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). JCB and TJM acknowledge the Ramsay Trust for fellowships. STFC is acknowledged for allocation of SANS beam time, and travel funding. CJC and LMH acknowledge the BBSRC (BB/L016265/r) and Novartis for funding.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Peveler, Dr William
• Authors: Peveler, W. J., Packman, H., Alexander, S., Chauhan, R. R., Hayes, L. M., Macdonald, T. J., Cockcroft, J. K., Rogers, S. E., Aarts, D. G.A.L., Carmalt, C. J., Parkin, I. P., and Bear, J. C.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Biomedical Engineering
• Journal Name: Soft Matter
• Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
• ISSN: 1744-683X
• ISSN (Online): 1744-6848
• Published Online: 11 October 2018
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2018 The Royal Society of Chemistry
• First Published: First published in Soft Matter 14(43): 8821-8827
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License