Chemo-responsiveness of aliphatic and aromatic amines on LMWG directed supramolecular metallogel: A morphological scrutiny of metallogel decomposition

Abstract

The decomposition process of a mechanically stable supramolecular metallogel of Copper(II) was studied. The terephthalic acid directed metallogel of Cu(II) (i.e. Cu(II)-TA) with DMF solvent is employed for finding the effect of aliphatic and aromatic amines on the metallogel network of Cu(II). Aliphatic and aromatic amines like ethylenediamine, diethylenetriamine, triethylenetetramine, tetraethylenepentamine, 2-aminopyridine, 4-aminopyridine, 2-(2-pyridyl)ethylamine, 2-aminopyrimidine are employed for experimental investigations. Individual amines can able to decompose the Cu(II)-metallogel system from its gel-state. The special affinity of N-donating sites of amines might be effective for making strong interactions with Cu(II) centres of the supramolecular Cu(II)-metallogel and this results to decompose the metallogel. The versatile microstructural aspects of newly found gel-amine based composites are critically analyzed through FESEM images which unequivocally establish that the individual amine has a distinctive role to decompose metallogel-network through chemical-interactions. The existence of the different elements of the metallogel-amine composite forming constituents is confirmed through the elemental analyses associated with FESEM.