Poly(aryl ether) based borogels: a new class of materials for hosting nanoparticles and sensing anions

Abstract

A facile approach to the design of boron containing poly(aryl ether) dendron based supramolecular gels is reported. The extensive π-π, as well as H-bonding interactions between the boronic acid and dendron facilitate the self-assembly process of the molecular building blocks in suitable solvents. Note that one of the poly(aryl ether) based borogel (1) [1: first generation poly(aryl ether) dendron attached to boronic acid via acylhydrazone linkage] exhibits almost double viscoelasticity than the best known value for poly(aryl ether) dendron based gels, which signifies that the presence of boronic acid group in the gel significantly enhances the intermolecular interactions through strong hydrogen bonding networks. The gel is successfully utilized as a template for the in situ synthesis of well dispersed silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in hydrogel networks. In addition, the solvent dependent sensing study of cyanide (CN⁻) and fluoride (F⁻) is also accomplished by these supramolecular materials