Abstract
We describe the formation of structured liquids and gels from a functionalised dipeptide based on tetraphenylethylene. Tetraphenylethylene is well-known to be able to undergo aggregation-induced emission. We use the emission data to understand the behaviour of the dipeptide in water under a variety of conditions. The dipeptide forms viscous solutions at high pH. Gels can be formed by a pH-trigger, but syneresis occurs. Addition of a calcium salt also leads to a gel with slight syneresis. Addition of sodium chloride leads to a self-supporting material, but this is not a true gel from the rheological perspective. From the emission data, we infer that there are limited structural changes on addition of sodium chloride or acid, but there are significant changes in molecular packing when the gel is formed by addition of a calcium salt.
Highlights
A range of N-functionalised amino acids and dipeptides can be used to form hydrogels [1].These are gaining significant interest and have been used for a range of different applications, such as cell culturing and differentiation, drug delivery, responsive materials, mineralization, and to prepare functional surfaces [1,2]
A model has been suggested for one example, Fmoc-diphenylalanine [7], it is not clear if this can be applied to other examples, and there are other hypotheses [8] even for this gelator [9]
This process can lead to artefacts in the measurements [10] and it is of interest to find new techniques that can probe the molecular packing in situ
Summary
A range of N-functionalised amino acids and dipeptides can be used to form hydrogels [1]. Molecules that exhibit AIE tend but aggregation results in restrictions to those molecular rotations, those fast deactivation to be those where rotations provide relaxation pathways of excited blocking states in the solution state, but pathways and fluorescence occurring instead. There are a number of examples where gelators bearing aggregation results in restrictions to those molecular rotations, blocking those fast deactivation moieties able to exhibit. We describe a TPE-based gelator, whereby is coupled tohow a core capable of AIE. This gelator self-assembles in water and diphenylalanine gels can be formed. This gelator self-assemblesofinthe water and gels can be formed. This provides insights into the assembly of N-functionalised dipeptides in water
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