Macroscopic volume phase transitions in supramolecular gels directed by covalent crosslinking

Abstract

Reaction-driven modification of the chemical composition of gels is an interesting approach to synthesize useful materials. Of the different reaction-based systems, crosslinking of the components through the formation of covalent bonds is used to provide mechanical stability to the materials. Here, we show that covalent crosslinking in multicomponent gels can be an effective strategy to synthesize new types of functional materials with spatiotemporal dynamic properties.