Halogen-bonding-triggered supramolecular gel formation

Abstract

Supramolecular gels are topical soft materials involving the reversible formation of fibrous aggregates using non-covalent interactions. There is significant interest in controlling the properties of such materials by the formation of multicomponent systems, which exhibit non-additive properties emerging from interaction of the components. The use of hydrogen bonding to assemble supramolecular gels in organic solvents is well established. In contrast, the use of halogen bonding to trigger supramolecular gel formation in a two-component gel (‘co-gel’) is essentially unexplored, and forms the basis for this study. Here, we show that halogen bonding between a pyridyl substituent in a bis(pyridyl urea) and 1,4-diiodotetrafluorobenzene brings about gelation, even in polar media such as aqueous methanol and aqueous dimethylsulfoxide. This demonstrates that halogen bonding is sufficiently strong to interfere with competing gel-inhibitory interactions and create a ‘tipping point’ in gel assembly. Using this concept, we have prepared a halogen bond donor bis(urea) gelator that forms co-gels with halogen bond acceptors. Supramolecular gels whose properties can be tuned through non-covalent interactions — typically metal coordination or hydrogen bonding — are attracting attention in various fields. Researchers have now shown that halogen bonding is also strong enough to be relied on; it interferes with competitive, gel-inhibitory hydrogen bonding to induce co-gelation between two urea-based components.

Cite this article

Meazza, L., Foster, J., Fucke, K. et al. Halogen-bonding-triggered supramolecular gel formation. Nature Chem 5, 42–47 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1496

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