Soft functional materials induced by fibrillar networks of small molecular photochromic gelators.
Low-molecular-mass organogelators (LMOGs) based on photochromic molecules aggregate in selected solvents to form gels through various spatio-temporal interactions. The factors that control the mode of aggregation of the chromophoric core in the LMOGs during gelation, gelation-induced changes in fluorescence, the formation of stacked superstructures of extended pi-conjugated systems, and so forth are discussed with selected examples. Possible ways of generating various light-harvesting assemblies are proposed, and some unresolved questions, future challenges, and their possible solutions on this topic are presented.
Bhattacharya
Santanu
S
Department of Organic Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012, India. sb@orgchem.iisc.ernet.in
Samanta
Suman K
SK
D000042:Absorption; D002621:Chemistry / Q000379:methods*; D002856:Chromatophores / Q000737:chemistry; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry; D005782:Gels; D008164:Luminescent Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D008422:Materials Testing; D008956:Models, Chemical; D011166:Porphyrins / Q000737:chemistry; D012997:Solvents / Q000737:chemistry; D013053:Spectrophotometry / Q000379:methods
D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D005782:Gels; D008164:Luminescent Proteins; D011166:Porphyrins; D012997:Solvents