title: Creation of chiral thixotropic gels through a crown-ammonium interaction and their application to a memory-erasing recycle system.
abstract: A unique class of oligothiophene-based organogelator bearing two crown ethers at both ends was synthesized. This compound could gelatinize several organic solvents, forming one-dimensional fibrous aggregates. From the observation of circular dichroism, it was confirmed that the helical handedness of the fibrous assembly is controllable by the chirality of 1,2-bisammonium guests, thus suggesting that one guest molecule bridges two gelator molecules through the crown-ammonium interaction. Interestingly, we have found that such chirality is created by thermal gelation, whereas it disappears by thixotropic gelation. The new finding implies that the present organogel system is applicable as a reversible switching memory device, featuring memory creation by a heat mode and memory erasing by a mechanical mode.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nanoscience, Faculty of Engineering, Sojo University, 4-22-1 Ikeda, Kumamoto 860-0082, Japan.
authors.forename: Adam A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Sobczuk
authors.forename: Youichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tsuchiya
authors.forename: Tomohiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shiraki
authors.forename: Shun-ichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tamaru
authors.forename: Seiji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shinkai
mesh_terms: D002942:Circular Dichroism; D043844:Crown Ethers / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry; D005782:Gels / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry; D008958:Models, Molecular; D015394:Molecular Structure; D000644:Quaternary Ammonium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D013876:Thiophenes / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D043844:Crown Ethers; D005782:Gels; D000644:Quaternary Ammonium Compounds; D013876:Thiophenes