Fabrication of macrocyclic organogel utilizing solvent balance and its application in vascular supporting materials

Abstract Functional gels from self-assembled macrocyclic host molecules towards diversified applications are promising yet challenging. In this work, we report a novel protocol to build up organogel materials via the delicate solvent balance. By utilization of good/poor solvent or nanoprecipitation method, self-assembly of β-cyclodextrin with abundant hydrogen bonding sites were triggered, generating sheet-like structures at microscale. The gels exhibit fine colloidal stability, robust mechanical strength and thermo-resistance properties, which can also be regulated by varying poor solvent (alcohols) compositions. Also, the polar organic solvent systems as well as the intrinsic micro/nanopockets among sheet structures provided space for entrapping fluorescent dyes. Due to the excellent properties of the gels, we successfully applied the gels as vessel supporting materials.