In this paper, new azobenzene imide derivatives with different substituent groups were designed and synthesized. Their gelation behaviors in 21 solvents were tested as novel low-molecular-mass organic gelators. It was shown that the alkyl substituent chains and headgroups of azobenzene residues in gelators played a crucial role in the gelation behavior of all compounds in various organic solven...

The basic sensitivity of the Limulus test and the inhibitory factors were examined in 21 radiopharmaceuticals commonly used in Japan. The sensitivity of the Limulus test using pre-gel was found to be 1 mug/ml for Escherichia coli endotoxin. This sensitivity is about ten times that of the rabbit test adopted by USP and JP. The Limulus test was applicable, with full sensitivity and without inhibi...

Low molecular weight gelators are an important class of molecules. The supramolecular gels formed by carbohydrate derived low molecular weight gelators are interesting soft materials that show great potential for many applications. Previously, we have synthesized a series of methyl 4,6-O-benzylidene-α-D-glucopyranoside derivatives and found that several of them are good gelators for water, aque...

In this feature article, we discuss a series of contributions dealing with the in situ fabrication of supramolecular metallogels (i.e. using low molecular weight ligands and metal ions) that show self-healing properties of the bulk gel phase after complete physical segregation. Most of the advances in this area have taken place during the last three years and are mainly represented by organogel...

This paper describes a microfluidic device for the microencapsulation of cells in alginate beads to enhance cell viability. The alginate droplet including cells was gelified with calcified oleic acid, using two-phase microfluidics. The on-chip gelation had generated monodisperse spherical alginate beads, which could not be readily obtained via conventional external gelation in a calcium chlorid...

Fifteen compounds reported to be inhibitors of gelation or sickling were studied by standard methods. These tests included (1) the determination of the solubility of deoxyhemoglobin S or Csat, (2) evaluation of sickling in whole SS blood at various pO2s, (3) measurement of the oxygen affinity of hemoglobin and blood, and (4) examination of red cell indices and morphology. Among the 4 noncovalen...

Smoluchowski's equation for rapid coagulation is used to describe the kinetics of gelation, in which the coagulation kernel Kij models the bonding mechanism. For different classes of kernels we derive criteria for the occurrence of gelation, and obtain critical exponents in the preand postgelation stage in terms of the model parameters; we calculate bounds on the time of gelation to, and give a...

transition in melts. Although polymeric systems’ technological applications in many different fields have received increasing researcher interest, their nontrivial viscoelastic behavior still doesn’t have a completely satisfying description. Of particular interest is the sol-gel transition, in which a viscous fluid (the sol) transforms into an elastic disordered solid (the gel) by creating in t...

Biodegradable polymers have been widely used as scaffolding materials to regenerate new tissues. To mimic natural extracellular matrix architecture, a novel highly porous structure, which is a three-dimensional interconnected fibrous network with a fiber diameter ranging from 50 to 500 nm, has been created from biodegradable aliphatic polyesters in this work. A porosity as high as 98.5% has bee...