SANS investigation into structure and mechanism of low molecular weight organogelators (LMWOs)

The aim of this research is to study the self-assembly mechanism and arising structures for a range of low molecular weight organogelators (LMWOs). The structural characteristics of the gelators will be varied and the correlated molecular properties with gel properties through chemical modification, temperature, concentration and solvent variation will be examined using SANS. Preliminary SANS results (Figure 2a-b) indicate that the gelation temperature is concentration dependent, and the molecular self-assembly process is reversible as the temperature cycle of heating/cooling does not affect the aggregation structure.