Steroidal derivatives of nitrogen containing compounds as potential gelators

In situ formation of steroidal supramolecular gels designed for drug release

In this work, a steroidal gelator containing an imine bond was synthesized, and its gelation behavior as well as a sensitivity of its gels towards acids was investigated. It was shown that the gels were acid-responsive, and that the gelator molecules could be prepared either by a conventional synthesis or directly in situ during the gel forming process. The gels prepared by both methods were studied and it was found that they had very similar macroand microscopic properties. Furthermore, the possibility to use the gels as carriers for aromatic drugs such as 5-chloro-8-hydroxyquinoline, pyrazinecarboxamide, and antipyrine was investigated and the prepared two-component gels were studied with…

Subcomponent Self-Assembly A Quick Way to New Metallogels

Subcomponent self-assembly, introduced by the Nitschke group,[1] is a process which allow complex structures to be generated from simple building blocks (generally aldehydes and amines). In this bottom-up approach, the building blocks spontaneously self-assemble around templates (usually metal ions) leading to a simultaneous covalent (C=N) and dative (N– metal) bonds formation. The method has been successfully used to construct well-defined metal-organic macrocycles, helicates, catenanes, rotaxanes, grids,[2] and cages.[3] Our field of interest lies not in building-up of defined structures but in designing gelator molecules for a formation of supramolecular gels as functional nanomaterials.…