Facile preparation and structure–property correlation of low molecular mass organic gelators derived from simple organic salts

Secondary ammonium salts namely dicyclohexylammonium 4-nitrocinnamate 1, 3-nitrocinnamate 2, 2-nitrocinnamate 3 and the corresponding benzoate salts namely dicyclohexylammonium 4-nitrobenzoate 4, 3-nitrobenzoate 5 and 2-nitrobenzoate 6 have been prepared and scanned for gelation. Salts 1 and 2 display excellent gelation properties. Structure–property correlations of these salts based on various X-ray diffraction data have been attempted and compared with the earlier results reported by our group. Single crystal structures of the gelator dicyclohexylammonium 3-bromocinnamate 7 reported earlier by us, and 4- and 2-methylbenzoate 8 and 10, both nongelators, have also been reported in the context of drawing important conclusions on structure–property correlations of dicyclohexylammonium cinnamate based gelators.