title: Spectral characterization of self-assemblies of aldopyranoside amphiphilic gelators: what is the essential structural difference between simple amphiphiles and bolaamphiphiles?
abstract: An aldopyranoside-based gelators (dodecanoyl-p-aminophenyl-beta-D-aldopyranoside)s and [1,12-dodecanedicarboxylic-bis(p-aminophenyl-beta-D-aldopyranoside)]s 1-4 were synthesized, and their gelation ability was evaluated in organic solvents and water. Simple aldopyranoside amphiphiles 1 and 2 were found to gelate organic solvents as well as water in the presence of a small amount of alcoholic solvents. More interestingly, not only extremely dilute aqueous solutions (0.05 wt%) of the bolaamphiphiles 3 and 4, but solutions of 3 and 4 in several organic solvents could be gelatinized. These results indicate that 1-4 can act as versatile amphiphilic gelators. We characterized the superstructures of the aqueous gels and organogels prepared from 1-4 using SEM, TEM, NMR and IR spectroscopy, and XRD. The aqueous gels 1 and 2 formed a three-dimensional network of puckered fibrils diameters in the range 20-200 nm, whereas the aqueous gels 3 and 4 produced filmlike lamellar structures with 50-100 nm thickness at extremely low concentrations (0.05 wt%). Powder XRD experiments indicate that the aqueous gels 1 and 2 maintain an interdigitated bilayer structure with a 2.90 nm period with the alkyl chain tilted, while the organogels 1 and 2 take a loosely interdigitated bilayer structure with a 3.48 nm period. On the other hand, the aqueous- and the organogels 3 and 4 have 3.58 nm spacing, which corresponds to a monolayered structure. The XRD, 1H NMR and FT-IR results suggest that 1-4 are stabilized by a combination of the hydrogen-bonding, pi-pi interactions and hydrophobic forces.
authors.affiliation: CREST, Japan Science and Technology Corporation (JST), Nanoarchitectonics Research Center, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba Central 4, 1-1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8562, Japan.
authors.forename: Jong Hwa
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: Seiji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shinkai
authors.forename: Toshimi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shimizu