An organogelator design without solubilizing side chains by backbone contortion of a perylene bisimide pigment

Abstract

Here we report a perylene bisimide (PBI) based gelator molecule that contains neither a long alkyl chain nor any other solubilizing group which are considered to be essential moieties of organogelators. Instead, the solubility of the newly designed PBI gelator 4a is imparted by a contorted aromatic core. Its self-assembly into highly fluorescent one-dimensional nanostructures is directed by H-bonding, affording extremely low critical gelation concentrations (CGCs) below 0.1 wt%.