2021 Volume 79 Issue 4 Pages 300-310
In the past two decades, the low-molecular-weight gelators have gained much attention due to promising technological applications in various fields as well as their fundamental scientific interests. Large structural diversity has been proposed to meet the requirements of the organogelators capable of gelling organic solvents. On the other hand there have been reported the gelators categorized as an ambidextrous gelator which can simultaneously act as both an organogelator and a hydrogelator. These ambidextrous gelators could be unique materials because of immobilizing organic solvents and water at the same time. The bottom-up strategy to build gelators based on molecular design is attractive from the viewpoint of inspiring development of the next generation of functional soft matter. In this review our recent progresses of organogelators consisting of various functional groups and two-component gelling systems are described. In addition, a development of aromatic ambidextrous gelators in terms of designing the parts of the molecular structure is also mentioned.
