Transition from low molecular weight non-gelating oligo(amide-triazole)s to a restorable, halide-responsive poly(amide-triazole) supramolecular gel.

A self-assembled poly(amide-triazole) physical gel (1) was found to show responsive behaviour towards halide anions, while the corresponding monomeric (2) and dimeric homologues (3) were non-gelating. In the presence of halide anions, polymer gel 1 collapsed to become a solution, but could be restored back to the gel state after addition of a AgNO3 salt.