Efficient peptide based gelators for aromatic organic solvents and vegetable oils: application in phase selective gelation and dye entrapment

The examples of organogel in vegetable oil are limited and the illustration of single amphiphile showing organogel in a lot of vegetable oils are rare. Hence, invention of a new type of amphiphile capable to gelate different vegetable oils are demanding and challenging aspect to us. In this article, we have synthesized two peptide based low molecular weight organic gelators, [11-(2-tert-Butoxycarbonylamino-3-methyl-butyrylamino)-undecanoylamino]-acetic acid (TBMBUA) and [11-(2-tert-Butoxycarbonylamino-3-methyl-pentanoylamino)-undecanoylamino]-acetic acid (TBMPUA) and have demonstrated their excellent gelation ability towards a number of aromatic organic solvents and different edible vegetable oils. FT-IR and temperature dependence 1H-NMR spectroscopy studies confirmed that hydrogen bonding interaction among the amide linkages plays significant role for formation of gel in organic solvents. XRD and FT-IR measurements suggested anti-parallel beta sheet arrangement between the peptide chains in the self-assembled state. The study revealed that the synthesized amphiphile TBMBUA is a good phase selective gelator of aromatic organic solvents in water-solvent mixture and both the gelators are able to entrap toxic dyes from aqueous dye solution. Hence the gelators can be successfully utilized to remove the toxic aromatic organic solvents and toxic dyes present in waste water which is one of the serious problems in recent years.