Photo-responsive organogelator based on cholesterol incorporated sugar-azobenzene derivatives

In this report, the design and synthesis of cholesterol-based sugar azobenzene derivatives as photo-responsive organogelators have been carried out. The gel formation in different solvents was examined, and a minimum CGC of 0.5 % (w/v) was attained in toluene. The mechanism of self-assembly of organogels was characterized by using ¹H NMR, UV-Vis, FT-IR, and PXRD. These organogelators show photo-isomerization and photo-reversible properties, which were studied using absorption spectra. Computational studies studied the optimized dimer structures and geometries of the trans and cis isomers. The prominent nature of this designed structure makes it an outstanding, intelligent soft material with plausible applications.