While supramolecular gels have been attracting great interest due to their easy design and fabrication, development of new applications based on these gels is always a challenging topic. Here, we report a two-component supramolecular gel that can generate and stabilize radicals through photo-irradiation, which can be subsequently used for polymerization. It has been found that the electrostatic interactions between a cationic amphiphile and anionic sulfonate could afford co-assembly into a two-component supramolecular gel. Upon photo-irradiation, the gel changed colour and produced the radicals, as verified from the EPR measurements. The radical thus formed in the supramolecular gel is relatively stable and could be used to polymerize acrylic acid directly without deoxygenation. In contrast, acrylic acid could not be polymerized in solution under the same conditions. This work expands the application scope of supramolecular gels.

中文翻译：

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两组分超分子凝胶中的光辐照产生的自由基用于聚合†

尽管超分子凝胶由于其易于设计和制造而引起了极大的兴趣，但基于这些凝胶的新应用的开发始终是一个具有挑战性的话题。在这里，我们报告了一种双组分超分子凝胶，它可以通过光辐照产生并稳定自由基，随后可用于聚合。已经发现，阳离子两亲物和阴离子磺酸盐之间的静电相互作用可提供共组装成两组分的超分子凝胶。根据EPR测量结果，光辐照后，凝胶改变了颜色并产生了自由基。因此在超分子凝胶中形成的自由基是相对稳定的，可以用于直接聚合丙烯酸而无需脱氧。相比之下，在相同条件下，丙烯酸不能在溶液中聚合。这项工作扩大了超分子凝胶的应用范围。