Understanding the mechanism of gelation and stimuli-responsive nature of a class of metallo-supramolecular gels

A series of experimental studies is described to explore the properties of stimuli-responsive metallo-supramolecular gels, as well as the nature of the gelation mechanism. Morphological and X-ray diffraction observations suggest gelation occurs via the flocculation of semicrystalline colloidal particles, which results in the gels exhibiting pronounced yielding and thixotropic behavior.