Low molecular mass cationic gelators derived from deoxycholic acid: remarkable gelation of aqueous solvents

During the past decade, the study of molecular self-assembly and network formation from small molecule gelators has become one of the most active areas of supramolecular chemistry. A serendipitous discovery of the gelation of a cationic bile salt (4) led us to investigate the aggregation properties of this new class of cationic hydrogelators. This article summarizes the recent efforts on the study of side chain structure–aggregation property relationship of cationic bile salts. Bile acid analogs with a quaternary ammonium group on the side chain were found to efficiently gel aqueous salt solutions. Some of the cationic bile salts gelled water alone and many of them gelled aqueous salt solutions even in the presence of organic co-solvents (≤20%) such as ethanol, methanol, DMSO, and DMF. These gels showed interconnected fibrous networks. Unlike natural anionic bile salt gels (reported for NaDC and NaLC), the cationic gels reported here are pH independent. Cationic gels derived from DCA showed more solid-like rheological response compared to natural NaDC gels studied earlier by Tato et al.