Heterometallic Coordination Polymer Gels Based on a Rigid, Bifunctional Ligand

There has been intense interest in supramolecular gels in recent years. Incorporation of metals within constituent molecular blocks (gelators) allows tuning of properties, including the optical, magnetic, morphological and rheological behaviours. However, coordination polymer gels (CPGs) assembled from metal ions and organic bridging ligands through coordination and/or other weak interactions have been less developed. CPGs may offer some interesting properties and have potential applications in stimuli responsive materials and fabrication of nanoscale structures with promising functionalities. In principle, CPGs can be designed and synthesised in a bottom-up matter due to a large number of metal ions and organic ligands available. To generate a gel with a desired function, gelators can be deliberately designed to contain the required structural features. However, only limited success has been achieved so far, because gels are potentially complex due to complication of various supramolecular interactions and the interaction between the gelator and the liquid © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.