Low-molecular-weight gelators LMWGs

Despite their solid appearance, within the gel the liquid component is mobile and is only held by capillary forces. The solid network can be either a covalent polymer or a supramolecular assembly of small molecules. The latter class of compound, termed low molecular weight gelators (LMWG) of which 14.11 14.15 are examples, is perhaps of most interest to supramolecular chemists. Perhaps the most well known gels are metal oxide based polymeric materials produced by the sol-gel process. The sol-gel process involves the hydrolysis and polycondensation of monomeric metal salts such as early transition... 

Supramolecular gels can be described as the self-assembly of small molecules, termed low-molecular-weight gelators (LMWGs), to form extended fibres that... 

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