Supramolecular xerogel linked with cobalt(II) ions: A facile method toward O2 storage and catalyzation of cyclohexene oxidation

This paper introduces a tripeptide (β-Asp-Phe-Phe, abbreviation β-AspFF) which can self-assemble into long nanofibrils in toluene solvent and further entangle to organogels. The nanofibrils of β-AspFF can serves as ligands to incorporate with Co(II) in the organogels. After being re-immersed into HFIP-H2O mixed solution (Volume Ratio, 1:1), the β-AspFF-Co(II) xerogel exhibited decent oxygen binding properties. Impressively, in comparing with β-AspFF-Co(II) complex, the β-AspFF-Co(II) xerogel proved to be a higher efficient catalyst for catalyzing cyclohexene oxidation reaction. We therefore suppose that the porous and nanofibrils structure of the xerogel plays a key role to improve the catalytic behavior of β-AspFF-Co(II) complex.