Metal-based soft materials for various applications

Abstract

Gelator molecule 5,5',5''-((1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triyl)tris(azanediyl)) triisophthalic acid (A2) is synthesized to fabricate organogel and Cu metallogel in DMSO:water mixture in 1:2 proportions. The fabricated gels have shown heat and pH-responsive behavior. Among these two fabricated gels the organogel shows thixotropic behavior. The synthesized organogel and Cu metallogel showed efficient iodine adsorption in the pores of the gel matrices. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study where iodine adsorption takes place in the gel state. The iodine adsorption capacity from the hexane solution of iodine was found to be 2.5 mgmg-1 and 1.7 mgmg-1 for organogel and Cu metallogel respectively. Owing to the non-cytotoxicity and biocompatibility of the A2 gelator molecule it was further utilized to fabricate a new gel Ru@A2 using a ruthenium-based metal complex with anticancer properties. The complex incorporated gel Ru@A2 was used as a delivery vehicle to deliver the anticancer complex. The IC50 value for the loaded drug was nearly 9.69 µM on HeLa cancer cells indicating intriguing cytotoxicity. The targeted drug delivery to cancer cells has been achieved using A2 as the delivery agent.