Biorefinery: a design tool for molecular gelators.
Molecular gels, the macroscopic products of a nanoscale bottom-up strategy, have emerged as a promising functional soft material. The prospects of tailoring the architecture of gelator molecules have led to the formation of unique, highly tunable gels for a wide spectrum of applications from medicine to electronics. Biorefinery is a concept that integrates the processes of converting biomass/renewable feedstock and the associated infrastructure used to produce chemicals and materials, which is analogous to petroleum-based refinery. The current review assimilates the successful efforts to demonstrate the prospects of the biorefinery concept for developing new amphiphiles as molecular gelators. Amphiphiles based on naturally available raw materials such as amygdalin, vitamin C, cardanol, arjunolic acid, and trehalose that possess specific functionality were synthesized using biocatalysis and/or chemical synthesis. The hydrogels and organogels obtained from such amphiphiles were conceptually demonstrated for diverse applications including drug-delivery systems and the templated synthesis of hybrid materials.
John
George
G
Department of Chemistry, The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York, The CUNY Institute for Macromolecular Assemblies (MMA), New York, New York 10031, USA. john@sci.ccny.cuny.edu
Shankar
Balachandran Vijai
BV
Jadhav
Swapnil R
SR
Vemula
Praveen Kumar
PK
D000504:Aloe; D000678:Amygdalin / Q000737:chemistry; D031021:Anacardium; D001205:Ascorbic Acid / Q000378:metabolism; D018533:Biomass; D002957:Citrus; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D005782:Gels / Q000737:chemistry*; D020100:Hydrogels / Q000737:chemistry; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning / Q000379:methods; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission / Q000379:methods; D008956:Models, Chemical; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry; D014315:Triterpenes / Q000737:chemistry
D005782:Gels; D020100:Hydrogels; D014315:Triterpenes; D000678:Amygdalin; C061640:arjunolic acid; D001205:Ascorbic Acid