Mechanism of organogel formation from mixed-ligand silver (I) carboxylates

Ag(I) carboxylate gelators with mixed-ligands were systemically investigated to understand the mechanism of the organic gel formation. The gelators constructed 3-D networks of nanometer-sized thin fibers which facilitated gel formation in various aromatic organic solvents, even at very low concentrations. The loss of reflection peaks in the X-ray diffraction data indicated the reduction of strong interactions between the long alkyl chains as the Ag(I) carboxylates formed gels by maximizing their interactions with the organic solvents. The gelation temperature (T_gel) was measured to explore the interaction between the gelator molecules and solvents depending on their composition and concentration. Based on the gelation phenomena, a dissociation/ re-association mechanism was proposed.