title: Synergistic Coassembly of Two Structurally Different Molecular Gelators.
abstract: Coassembly of molecules can produce materials with improved properties and functionalities. To this end, achieving a molecular level understanding of the interactions governing the coassembly is essential. In this work, two molecular gelators with significantly different structures and main intermolecular forces for assembly were coassembled. The elastic moduli of the hybrid gels are more than 1 order of magnitude higher than those of the gels formed by the individual gelators, showing an obvious synergistic effect. The interactions between the gelators were investigated with confocal microscopy and both one-dimensional and two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance. It was found that the two gelators coassemble to form fibers due to the nonspecific van der Waals interactions between their alkyl chains and the specific interactions between their functional groups. Switching from one gelator-dominated fiber network to the other gelator-dominated fiber network was achieved at a critical molar ratio of the gelators. The two gelators serve as additives of each other to tune the nucleation and growth of the fiber networks. The observations of this work are significant to the development of materials with improved properties by coassembly of different molecules.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University , Geelong, Australia.
authors.forename: Jing-Yu
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Center for Soft Condensed Matter Physics and Interdisciplinary Research, Soochow University , Suzhou 215006, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University , Geelong, Australia.
authors.forename: Zhen-Yu
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University , Geelong, Australia.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University , Geelong, Australia.
authors.forename: Akhil
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: School of Applied Science, RMIT University , GPO Box 2476, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia.
authors.forename: Sheshanath-Vishwanath
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Bhosale
authors.affiliation: Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University , Geelong, Australia.
authors.forename: Jing-Liang
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Li