Gelation process visualized by synchronous fluorescence enhancement of polyhydroxy benzoylhydrazone-based organogel

A polyhydroxy benzoylhydrazone-based low-molecular-weight organic gelator (IV1) containing a tetraphenylethene fluorophore was designed and synthesized. Gelator IV1 exhibits exceptional gelation ability in organic solvent comparing to other analogues. More importantly, the time-dependent increase of storage modulus G′ of the gel and fluorescent intensity of IV1 are almost synchronized, which indicates that the gelation process and fluorescence enhancement are extremely relevant. This provides a convenient method to visually monitor the gelation process of organic gelators by fluorescent detection. Furthermore, gelation mechanism is studied in detail. According to these results, we propose the intermolecular interactive mechanism to understand the gelation process of polyhydroxy benzoylhydrazone-based tetraphenylethene compounds. [Display omitted] •AIE fluorogen was implanted into the gelator.•Gelation process and fluorescence enhancement were synchronized.•Gelation process was tracked in situ and in real time by fluorescence signal.