Dynamic covalent gels are synthesized from an aromatic trialdehyde and α,ω‐dinitroalkanes via the nitroaldol reaction in organic solvents. The gelation process can be fine‐tuned by changing the starting nitroalkanes, solvents, feed concentration, catalyst loading, or reaction temperature. The resulting organogels demonstrate good structural integrity and excellent self‐healing ability. Intact xerogels are produced upon drying, without damaging the network, and the solvent‐free network can recover its gel form in the presence of an organic solvent. Furthermore, the crosslinked dynameric gel depolymerize to small molecules in response to excess nitromethane.
Dynamic covalent gels have been synthesized from an aromatic trialdehyde and α,ω-dinitroalkanes via the nitroaldol reaction in organic solvents. The gelation process could be finetuned by changing the starting nitroalkanes, solvents, feed concentration, catalyst loading, or reaction temperature. The resulting organogels demonstrated good structural integrity and excellent self-healing ability. Intact xerogels were produced upon drying, without damaging the network, and the solvent-free network could recover its gel form in the presence of an organic solvent. Furthermore, the crosslinked dynameric gel depolymerized to small molecules in response to excess nitromethane.
Complex dynamic systems displaying interdependency between nitroaldol and boronic ester reactions have been demonstrated. Nitroalkane-1,3-diols, generated by the nitroaldol reaction, were susceptible to ester formation with different boronic acids in aprotic solvents, whereas hydrolysis of the esters occurred in the presence of water. The boronic ester formation led to significant stabilization of the nitroaldol adducts under basic conditions. The use of bifunctional building blocks was furthermore established, allowing for main chain nitroaldol-boronate dynamers as well as complex network dynamers with distinct topologies. The shape and rigidity of the resulting dynamers showed an apparent dependency on the configuration of the boronic acids.
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