Novel X‐ray Method for In Situ Determination of Gelator Strand Structure: Polymorphism of Cholesteryl Anthraquinone‐2‐carboxylate

Abstract

Well-structured physical gels, composed of an organic liquid and a small amount of a gelator molecule like the title compound 1, are known to have microstructures of inter-linked fibers. A method is described for the determination of the molecular packing arrangements of the gelator molecules in the fibers, based upon subtracting the X-ray powder diffraction pattern of the neat liquid component from that of the gel and relating the difference to the pattern of the morphs of the neat gelator solid.