Open AccessTransient Supramolecular Hydrogels Formed by Aging‐Induced Seeded Self‐Assembly of Molecular Hydrogelators
Author(s) -
Wang Yiming,
Piskorz Tomasz K.,
Lovrak Matija,
Mendes Eduardo,
Guo Xuhong,
Eelkema Rienk,
Esch Jan H.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
advanced science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.388
H-Index - 100
ISSN - 2198-3844
DOI - 10.1002/advs.201902487
Subject(s) - self healing hydrogels , supramolecular chemistry , self assembly , nanotechnology , self healing , molecule , materials science , chemical engineering , chemistry , polymer chemistry , organic chemistry , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology , engineering
Here, transient supramolecular hydrogels that are formed through simple aging‐induced seeded self‐assembly of molecular gelators are reported. In the involved molecular self‐assembly system, multicomponent gelators are formed from a mixture of precursor molecules and, typically, can spontaneously self‐assemble into thermodynamically more stable hydrogels through a multilevel self‐sorting process. In the present work, it is surprisingly found that one of the precursor molecules is capable of self‐assembling into nano‐sized aggregates upon a gentle aging treatment. Importantly, these tiny aggregates can serve as seeds to force the self‐assembly of gelators along a kinetically controlled pathway, leading to transient hydrogels that eventually spontaneously convert into thermodynamically more stable hydrogels over time. Such an aging‐induced seeded self‐assembly process is not only a new route toward synthetic out‐of‐equilibrium supramolecular systems, but also suggests the necessity of reporting the age of self‐assembling building block solutions in other self‐assembly systems.