分子凝胶是一类典型的以液体为主要成分的刺激响应性软物质。分子凝胶的发展为构建功能体系、发展分子材料、进行化学转化提供了常规溶剂和化学凝胶无法比拟的介质优势。因此，近年来分子凝胶研究受到了人们日益广泛的关注。本项目立足已有工作基础，围绕力学强度难以提高这一制约分子凝胶发展与应用的突出问题，在比较化学凝胶、高分子凝胶和小分子物理凝胶固有特点、局限性和结构差异的基础上，提出以典型超分子单元为核心结构，按照超分子化学原理，利用化学合成技术设计、制备具有不同拓扑结构，包含有限结构单元的系列寡聚物，通过对以共价键合与超分子作用协同为特征的寡聚效应的深入研究，获得一批结构新颖、性能优异的新型胶凝剂，构建兼具分子凝胶和化学凝胶优势，液态粘度接近纯溶剂的刺激响应性超强凝胶，探索显著改善分子凝胶力学性能的有效途径。毫无疑问，此类研究必将有助于加深人们对分子凝胶结构-性能关系的认识，拓展分子凝胶的实际应用。

Molecular gels, which are mainly composed of liquids, and possess controlled and reversible phase transition properties, are a typical class of stimulus-responsive soft materials. It is well known that the emergence and development of molecular gels have boosted the fabrication of functional systems, the development of molecular materials, and the conduct of chemical transformation due to its superiors in various aspects. For these reasons, molecular gels have drawn increasing attention during the last few years. On the basis of above consideration, our accumulation in studies of molecular gels, and careful analysis of the strong and weak points of chemical gels, physical gels, as well as molecular gels, a project relevant to the studies of oligomerization effect in molecular gels is proposed. The main purpose of the project is to find out a way to significantly enhance the mechanical strength of molecular gels and at the same time to maintain their super-smart stimulus-responsive properties, and the pure solvent-like viscosity when they exist in liquid state. It is believed that these gels are the ones to be developed, of which the gel networks are formed and maintained by synergistic action of the supramolecular association, a dominate interaction mainly found in conventional molecular gels, and covalent bonding, an interaction found in chemical and polymer gels. Therefore, synergistic action of supramolecular association and covalent bonding is a key issue in the studies of present project. Accordingly, a series of oligomers with cholesterol, cholic acid, aromatics, ferrocene, and ligands for transition metal ions as key structural units will be designed under the guidance of supramolecular principles, and prepared by using the synthetic techniques established in conventional molecular chemistry. Their solubility in relevant solvents and their self-assembly behavior in solution state and at air/liquid interfaces will be studied. On the basis of these studies, the gelation behavior of the oligomers, and the properties, in particular the mechanical properties of the gels as obtained will be investigated systematically. Furthermore, studies on the tentative application of the gels of superior stability as new medium for electrophoresis will be also conducted. It is believed that a number of new gelators and new molecular gels possessing both the advantages of chemical gels and those of conventional molecular gels will be developed via implementation of the present project. No doubt, conduction of the research briefly described must be helpful for the understanding of the structure-property relationship of molecular gels and for extending their real-life applications.