Supramolecular hydrogels prepared from fluorescent alkyl pyridinium acrylamide monomers and CB[8]

We introduce a new facile synthetic methodology for the preparation of alkyl pyridinium-containing acrylamide monomers. Inclusion complexes of these new monomers with CB[8] facilitate supramolecular crosslinking in a series of hydrogels formed through in situ polymerisation. The resulting hydrogels not only show greatly enhanced mechanical properties over a purely acrylamide-based gel, but also by selecting fluorescent pyridine moieties, the materials are endowed with the fluorescence properties desirable for several sensing applications.