Rheological studies of alkylamine-ethylene glycol organogel: Chain length dependent structural diversity

A systematic rheological study is undertaken to investigate the viscoelastic behaviors of alkylamine-ethylene glycol organogels. Microstructures and resulting mechanical properties are thus studied in the functions of temperature, chain length and concentration of the alkylamine. A model based on scaling laws of shear elasticity versus concentration is employed to describe the structural features of the gels. According to the supersaturation principle, a gradual structural change from lamellar/fibrillar to spherulitic/polyhedral network can be accounted when the chain length of alkylamine is increased from 12 to 18.