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Supramolecular Gelation of Europium and Calcium Cholates through the Nucleation‐Elongation Growth Mechanism
Author(s) -
Laishram Raju,
Maitra Uday
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
chempluschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.801
H-Index - 61
ISSN - 2192-6506
DOI - 10.1002/cplu.201900247
Subject(s) - nucleation , luminescence , europium , elongation , rheology , chemical engineering , phase (matter) , supramolecular chemistry , chemical physics , materials science , fluorescence , biomolecule , chemistry , nanotechnology , biophysics , crystallography , composite material , optics , organic chemistry , crystal structure , physics , optoelectronics , biology , engineering , ultimate tensile strength
A detailed understanding of gelation mechanism can enable the properties of gels to be tuned for various applications, and may possibly help in understanding the aggregation of different biomolecules. We report a detailed study of the morphological and physio‐chemical changes, dynamics (of a probe), and kinetics during the gelation of europium and calcium cholate hydrogels, leading to the development of a growth model. AFM images showed the transition of aggregated particles (100–150 nm) in the sol phase growing to a fibrous network in the gel through the entanglement of fibres, and not by dendritic growth (height analysis). The dynamic changes during this phase transformation were studied using a fluorescence probe (change in intensity and lifetime). We have been able to delineate the growth mechanism by using a combination of Eu(III) luminescence and a polarity sensitive fluorescence probe. The growth was found to follow the nucleation–elongation model, and these two phases responded in distinctly different fashions in rheological and luminescence measurements.