Open AccessAssembly of ( l+d) ‐Tryptophan Derivatives Containing an Imidazole Group Selectively Forms a Rare Purple Ni 2+ ‐Hydrogel
Author(s) -
Wang XiaoJuan,
Wei ChuanWan,
Gao ShuQin,
He Bo,
Lin YingWu
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
chemistryopen
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.644
H-Index - 29
ISSN - 2191-1363
DOI - 10.1002/open.201900214
Subject(s) - imidazole , tryptophan , ligand (biochemistry) , chemistry , aqueous solution , amino acid , metal , self healing hydrogels , combinatorial chemistry , self assembly , derivative (finance) , polymer chemistry , stereochemistry , organic chemistry , receptor , biochemistry , financial economics , economics
Abstract Design of metal‐selective hydrogels is attractive due to potential applications in materials and biological sciences. Although much progress has been made, assembly of both l ‐ and d ‐amino acid derivatives was less explored for design of metallohydrogels. In this study, we synthesized a facile and small tryptophan derivative containing an imidazole ligand with both l ‐ and d ‐ configurations (denoted as l/d ‐ImW). Intriguingly, the assembly of ( l+d) ‐ImW gelators was found to selectively form a Ni 2+ ‐hydrogel in aqueous medium at room temperature, which shows a rare purple color and exhibits excellent multi‐responsiveness. In addition to insights into the gelation mechanism, this study provides a novel approach to the design of metallohydrogels, by the assembly of ( l+d) ‐amino acid derivatives containing both aromatic rings and multiple metal coordination sites.