Stimulus-Responsive Supramolecular Gels

With the increasing development of supramolecular chemistry, stimulus-responsive supramolecular gels as a supramolecular material attract more attention. Supramolecular gels are self-assembled by non-covalent forces, when supramolecular gels are stimulated by temperature, light, pH, chemistry substances, mechanical strength etc., the gels can produce the appropriate response, such as sol-gel transition, change in color or fluorescence. Stimulus-responsive supramolecular gels have very good prospects in the areas of ion recognition materials, self-healing materials and biomaterials. This paper reviews the progress of stimulus responsive supramolecular gels in the past five years. According to the different types of stimulation, the gels are devided into the following categories: heat-sensitive organic gel, chemistry substances and pH-responsive supramolecular gels, light-sensitive organic gel, redox-responsive supramolecular gel, mechanical force-responsive supramolecular gels and multiple stimuli-responsive supramolecular gel. According to these classifications, the supramolecular gels are introduced and at the same time, the developing orientation for further research is presented.