New organic-inorganic hybrid material based on functional cellulose nanowhisker, polypseudorotaxane and Au nanorods

•New gel based on thiolated polyrotaxane, cellulose and Au nanoparticles prepared.•This gel designed based on high interaction tendency between Au and thiol groups.•NMR measurements clarify successful thiolation of cyclodextrin.•Surprisingly, hybrid gel showed polygonal plate like morphology. Organic-inorganic functional hybrid materials play a major role in the development of advanced functional materials and recently have gained growing interest of the worldwide community. In this context, new hybrid organic-inorganic gel consisting of cellulose nanowhisker xanthate (CNWX) and S-H functionalized polypseudorotaxane (PPR) as organic parts of gel and gold nanorods (GNRs) as inorganic cross-linking agent were prepared. Firstly, thiolated α-cyclodextrin (α-CD-SH) was threaded onto poly-(ethylene glycol) bis (mercaptoethanoate ester) (PEG-SH) to give polypseudorotaxane (PPR) and then it reacted with GNRs in the presence of CNWX to give the new hybrid gel material. The new synthesized gel and its components characterized by spectroscopic measurement methods such as FT-IR, UV–vis and NMR spectroscopy. Interestingly, hybrid gel showed new polygonal plate like morphology with 45–60nm thickness and 400–600nm width. The obtained gel may have potential application in many fields especially in biomedical applications.