Facile Synthesis of Semifluoroalkyl Triazole Derivatives for the Separation of Oil and Water

Semifluoroalkyl triazole derivatives have been facilely synthesized by copper-catalyzed alkyne-azide cycloaddition reaction, which can gelate some organic solvents at weight concentrations of down to 0.5 wt.%. The gelation abilities of triazole derivatives with/without a semifluoroalkyl and an aromatic group were fully characterized. We found that triazole derivatives containing semifluoroalkyl chains and aromatic groups are typically effective in forming supramolecular organogels. Moreover, the gelator in ethyl acetate can solidify oil from an oil-water biphasic mixture for about 1 min.