Functional Materials Based on Self‐Assembled Low‐Molecular‐Weight Gelators

Gels are fascinating viscoelastic materials that can be found everywhere around us. Among them, supramolecular gels formed by the self-assembly of low-molecular-weight gelators are of special interest since the reversibility of their self-assembled fibrillar network allows to design gels responsive to more than one physical and/or chemical stimuli (i.e. heat, light, pH, etc.). In these gels the sol–gel transition can be triggered by those stimuli in a completely reversible way, which makes them ideal systems for the design of functional materials or devices. In the first part of this chapter, we present the bases of the molecular self-assembly process that leads to the formation of these gels, and we give an update of the key structural characteristics for their custom design. Finally, relevant examples of functional gels sensitive to different stimuli are presented that evidence their potential application as functional materials.