Reusable nontoxic pyrimidine-based oleogelators: Phase selectivity and nanostructured structuring

Abstract

Over the last few decades, scientists have been working hard to produce edible structural agents those can be used in food, cosmetics, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology. The supramolecular assembly of simple amphiphiles in presence of edible oil is the most ideal system for this purpose because the system has no harmful health consequences. We have attempted to address the aforementioned implications in this article by synthesizing a novel class of structuring agents 2-alkyl amino pyrimidine-4-carboxylic acid amphiphiles named 2-decylamino-pyrimidine-4-carboxylic acid (DPCA), 2-dodecylamino- pyrimidine-4-carboxylic acid (DDPCA) and 2-tetradecylamino-pyrimidine-4-carboxylic acid (TDPCA), using simple procedure. To our delight, the prepared amphiphiles self-assemble to a gel matrix in various vegetable oils and mineral oils. Microscopic analyses were used to investigate the nanostructured morphology of molecular gels. Rheological studies revealed that oleogels are mechanically processable and viscoelastic. Temperature dependent and concentration dependent proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H-NMR) studies were performed to analyze the hydrogen bonding and π–π interactions. The study discovered that gelators act as reusable phase selective gelators (PSG) of oil in water–oil mixture. The (3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5 diphenyl tetrazolium bromide) (MTT) assay has proven that the synthetic oleogelators are nontoxic.