Title:New Ureas and Amides - An Account of Recent Trends and Developments in Low
Molecular Weight Gelators
Volume: 28
Issue: 13
Author(s): Ajaykumar Manibhai Patel, Varsha Bhardwaj and Amar Ballabh*
Affiliation:
- Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara 390002, Gujarat,
India
Keywords:
Low molecular weight-gelators, crystal engineering, self-assembled fibrillar networks, structure-property correlation, SANS, nucleic acids.
Abstract: The last 20 years have witnessed major advancements in the field of supramolecular
chemistry and have brought us closer to the designing of low molecular
weight gelators with desired properties and applications. In that regard, amide- and ureabased
gelators comprise a unique class as they are extremely versatile in terms of molecular
design and offer a wide range of applications, like anion responsive materials,
selective sensing of heavy metal ions, environmental remediation and many more. Both
sets of compounds have similar molecular scaffolds, making them an excellent tool to
determine the relative importance of the supramolecular interactions involved in the
gelation process. Besides, the concept of crystal engineering can also be employed to
understand the underlying mechanism of gelation by scrutinizing the interactions and
supramolecular assemblies formed by these systems. In this article, we focus on various supramolecular
assemblies formed by various amide and urea derivatives and their recently reported applications to establish
structure-property correlation and their futuristic aspects.