Controlled Self-Assembly-Synthetic Tunability and Covalent Capture of Nanoscale Gel Morphologies

A synthetically simple gelator with the capacity to be crosslinked, leading to the covalent capture of the different nano-assemblies was demonstrated. The gelator was assembled through self-complementary hydrogen bond interactions to yield two completely different nanoscale morphologies under different cooling conditions. Lysine bis-urea was synthesized in high yield by a simple one-step synthesis and by mixing two commercially available chemicals, lysine di-isocyanate and allylamine. It was observed that the different self-assembled structures could be covalently 'captured' by alkene metathesis. It was also found that the morphologies of the self-assembled nanoscale structures could be tuned in response to sample cooling rates. Double bonds of the gelator allowed the self-assembled structures to be captured by covalent cross-linking yielding solid and robust nanostructured materials.