Thermoreversible as well as thermoirreversible organogel formation by L-cysteine-based amphiphiles with poly(ethylene glycol) tail.

We report here the gelation behavior of two novel L-cysteine-based amphiphiles bearing a poly(ethylene glycol) tail. The amphiphiles were found to form transparent organogels in both apolar and aprotic polar solvents at reasonably low concentrations. In chloroform, dichloromethane, and benzene solvents, the organogels are formed at room temperature without the requirement of heating-cooling cycle due to strong hydrogen-bonding interaction between gelator molecules. The swelling kinetics, however, becomes faster on heating. Unlike most organogels of low-molecular-mass gelators, these organogels do not exhibit a gel-to-sol transition on heating but instead become rigid when heated. Surprisingly, in polar solvents, the gelation required a heating-cooling cycle, and the sol-to-gel transition was found to be reversible. The gelation abilities of the amphiphiles were correlated with the hydrogen-bonding parameters of the solvents. Intermolecular H-bonding interaction was found to be the major driving force for the organogelation. The morphology of the organogels was investigated by the use of optical as well as electron microscopy and was found to be dependent on the nature of solvent. The mechanical strengths of the organogels were studied by rheological measurements.