Novel class of saccharide-based organogelators: glucofuranose derivatives as one of the smallest and highly efficient gelators

Gluco- and allofuranose derivatives, having unprotected three OH groups, were investigated as potential gelators, showing high gelating ability for a variety of organic solvents and result in new consistent class of organogelators. The minimum gelator concentration reaches 0.03%, which is one of the lowest concentrations achieved so far. The correlation between the saccharide crystal structure and its gelating ability was also examined. The SEM pictures of xerogeles obtained from concentrated and diluted gels (1.0-0.03%) show significant differences in μm-scale structure.