Towards a fragment-based approach in gelator design: halogen effects leading to thixotropic, mouldable and self-healing systems in aryl-triazolyl amino acid-based gelators!

A simple replacement of a H atom by Br transformed non-gelating aryl triazolyl amino acid benzyl ester into a versatile gelator, which formed shape-persistent, self-healing and mouldable gels. The 'bromo-aryl benzyl ester' fragment was then transplanted into another framework, which resulted in similar solvent preference and gelation efficiency.