Supramolecular Gelation of Europium and Calcium Cholates through the Nucleation-Elongation Growth Mechanism

A detailed understanding of gelation mechanism can enable the properties of gels to be tuned for various applications, and may possibly help in understanding the aggregation of different biomolecules. We report a detailed study of the morphological and physio-chemical changes, dynamics (of a probe), and kinetics during the gelation of europium and calcium cholate hydrogels, leading to the development of a growth model. AFM images showed the transition of aggregated particles (100-150 nm) in the sol phase growing to a fibrous network in the gel through the entanglement of fibres, and not by dendritic growth (height analysis). The dynamic changes during this phase transformation were studied using a fluorescence probe (change in intensity and lifetime). We have been able to delineate the growth mechanism by using a combination of Eu(III) luminescence and a polarity sensitive fluorescence probe. The growth was found to follow the nucleation-elongation model, and these two phases responded in distinctly different fashions in rheological and luminescence measurements