A New Class of Dendritic Metallogels with Multiple Stimuli-Responsiveness and as Templates for the In Situ Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles

A new class of poly(aryl ether) dendritic ligands containing a pyridine functionality at the focal point and the corresponding AgI complexes through metal–ligand coordination were designed, synthesized, and fully characterized. Compared with the dendritic ligands, the corresponding dendritic complexes exhibited much better gelation ability for various organic solvents at very low critical gelation concentrations. The gel–sol phase transition temperatures and morphologies could be finely tuned by binding silver ion to the ligand. A preliminary study revealed that multiple noncovalent interactions, such as AgI–pyridine coordination, solvophobic interaction, and π–π stacking, synergistically enable the formation of stable metallogels. Interestingly, these metallogels could intelligently respond to multiple external stimuli including temperature, chemicals, and shear stress, leading to gel–sol phase transitions. In addition, these dendritic metallogels were successfully applied as templates for the in situ formation and stabilization of silver nanoparticles without the use of any chemical reducing/stabilizing agents. Intelligent gels: A new class of dendritic organometallic gels was fabricated from pyridine‐functionalized poly(aryl ether) dendritic complexes through hierarchical self‐assembly. The metallogels could respond intelligently to multiple external stimuli including temperature, chemicals, and shear stress, leading to gel–sol phase transitions. In addition, the dendritic metallogels were successfully used as templates for the in situ formation and stabilization of silver nanoparticles without the use of any chemical reducing/stabilizing agents.