Gelation, self-assembly, and acid responsive properties of an unsymmetrical 1,3,4-oxadiazole derivative

ABSTRACT

A novel unsymmetrical 1,3,4-oxadiazole derivative (2-POXD-B8) was synthesized. 2-POXD-B8 can form organogel in methanol. The gelation and self-assembly behavior of 2-POXD-B8 were researched by SEM, XRD, UV–vis, and temperature-dependent FT-IR, etc. π–π interaction and van der Waals force are viewed as the main driving forces in the self-assembly process. In addition, 2-POXD-B8 showed acid-responsive properties in different states, including gel state and film state. A dual-channel acid response by reversible solution–gel transition and fluorescence changes was observed in the methanol gel system. The protonation of 2-POXD-B8 is the reason for its acid-responsive property.

KEYWORDS:

• 1,3,4-oxadiazole
• organogel
• self-assembly
• acid responsive

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/1539445X.2024.2326837

Additional information

Funding

We gratefully appreciate financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [22206145], the Excellent Youth Research Project of Anhui Province [2022AH030135], the Provincial of Natural Science Foundation of Anhui [2208085QB65], the Natural Science Research Project Of Anhui Education Department [KJ2021A1104], the Scientific Research Platform Project of Suzhou University [2021XJPT08, 2021XJPT09], and the PhD Research Funding of Suzhou University [2020BS019, 2021BSK011].