Optimizing biomimetic gelators constructed from amino acid building blocks

This paper reports the use of a range of amino acids to construct diverse gelators, employing structures in which Boc-protected amino acids are attached to either end of an aliphatic diamine spacer chain. The choice of amino acid determines whether nanoscale self-assembly takes place and controls the properties of the resultant material, while the function of the amino acid (e.g., the optical properties of tryptophan) is translated into the self-assembled nanostructured gel.