ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

The effect of heating on Gelator Solutions

Abstract: Low molecular weight gels are formed by the self-assembly of small molecules into fibres that entangle to form a matrix. Hydrogels are an important class, as these are typically biocompatible for example. One class of gelator that can be used to form hydrogels is functionalised dipeptides. Typically, gels are formed by initially forming a solution at high pH, and then decreasing the pH. An overlooking key step is the nature of the solution at high pH. Here, a range of surfactant-like structures are formed. Critically, we have recently found that some of these solutions have an extremely unusual behaviour. If they are heated and cooled, the solutions have a vastly different viscosity and become very stringy. Not all gelators do this however, so a key question is what is the underlying reason for this. We address this in this proposal.

Principal Investigator: Professor Dave Adams
Experimenter: Professor Emily Draper
Experimenter: Professor Annela Seddon
Local Contact: Dr Robert Dalgliesh
Experimenter: Dr Kate McAulay
Experimenter: Miss Ana Maria Fuentes Caparrós

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB1820004

ISIS Experiment Number: RB1820004

Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Data format: RAW/Nexus
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Data Citation

The recommended format for citing this dataset in a research publication is as:
[author], [date], [title], [publisher], [doi]

For Example:
Professor Dave Adams et al; (2018): The effect of heating on Gelator Solutions, STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB1820004

Data is released under the CC-BY-4.0 license.