Understanding alignment in gel noodles

We can prepare gel noodles by extruding a solution of a dipeptide at high pH into a salt bath. The noodles formed have sufficiently mechanically integrity to be manipulated and lifted out of solution. An potential advantage of these over bulk gels is that it appears that there is a significant degree of molecular alignment within these structures, opening up applications such as conducting wires. We need to quantify this alignment. Using SAXS, we could determine alignment from dried noodles, but not from wet noodles, which we believe is due to a lack of contrast. Here, we will use SANS relying on the contrast difference between gelator and D2O.我们可通过将高pH值下的二肽溶液挤入盐浴中来制备凝胶面条（gel noodles）。所得到的凝胶面条具备足够的机械完整性，可被操作并从溶液中取出。相较于块状凝胶，这类凝胶面条的潜在优势在于其结构内部存在显著程度的分子取向，这为其带来了导电导线等应用场景。我们需要对该分子取向进行量化表征。借助小角X射线散射（Small-Angle X-ray Scattering, SAXS），我们可对干燥后的凝胶面条进行取向表征，但无法直接表征湿态凝胶面条，我们认为这是由于缺乏对比度所致。本研究将采用基于凝胶因子与重水（D₂O）之间对比度差异的小角中子散射（Small-Angle Neutron Scattering, SANS）开展相关研究。