Temperature and Solvent-Dependent Morphological Sol Gel Transformation: an in Situ Microscopic Observation.

A thermoreversible self-assemble process from gel (fiber) to sol (vesicle) state in the system alkylamine-ethylene glycol is for the first time monitored by in situ polarized optical microscopy, XRD, (1)H NMR, SEM, SAXRD, FTIR and drop shape analysis. It is found that the solvent molecules are intercalated with alkylamine molecules to form the organogel and vesicle structures. A model based on structural transformation with respect to these alkylamine gelator-solvent assembles is therefore proposed.