Understanding the self-assembly process and tunability of the final properties of dipeptide-based low molecular weight hydrogels

Abstract

Reported in this thesis is the ability to prepare a number of dipeptide-conjugate hydrogels with tunable final properties, through judicious choice of the assembly conditions and gelator structure. Gelation of these materials can be triggered by solvent-mediated, pH-triggered, UV-triggered and electrochemically-induced means to give different mechanical properties. Subtle changes in the assembly conditions can evoke changes in the final properties - something that was evident across a range of gelator systems and methods of triggering gelation. UV and electrochemical methods demonstrated the ability to spatially and temporally control gelation, which could be of potential use to biosensor and cell culturing applications. Molecular rotors could be employed to monitor the kinetics of the gelation process, indicating an evolution in self-assembled structure around the pKa of a gelator. This thesis highlights the importance of the self-assembly process on the final properties of dipeptide-conjugate gels. A better understanding of this process will be beneficial for gelator design. Where specific hydrogel properties are needed, the gelator will be tunable for a desired application by manipulating the assembly conditions