View article

Rational design of small molecular gelators is an elusive and herculean task, despite the rapidly growing body of literature devoted to such gels over the past decade. The process of self-assembly, in molecular gels, is intricate and must balance parameters influencing solubility and those contrasting forces that govern epitaxial growth into axially symmetric elongated aggregates. Although the gelator–gelator interactions are of paramount importance in understanding gelation, the solvent–gelator specific (i.e., H-bonding) and nonspecific (dipole–dipole, dipole-induced and instantaneous dipole induced forces) intermolecular interactions are equally important. Solvent properties mediate the self-assembly of molecular gelators into their self-assembled fibrillar networks. Herein, solubility parameters of solvents, ranging from partition coefficients (log P), to Henry's law constants (HLC), to solvatochromic parameters (ET …