The aggregating state and fractal structure of the polymerizable gelator, 4,4'-bis(a-methylacryloyloxy-l ,3- ethyleneoxycarbonylpropionamido) diphenyl methane (BMDM) , in diphenyl ether was investigated with X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) . It is revealed that the fibril bundles consist of well-ordered stacks of ribbons or sheets. The width of a ribbon is 3 nm and its thickness is 0.1-0.2 nm. It is also shown that the aggregates of gelators have a well-ordered lamellar structure, self-comparability and typical fractal characteristic. With the help of fractal theory and C++ program, fractal dimension D of the fractal structure can be calculated to be D = 1.8-1.9 through Sandbox methods.

Key words: GEL, AFM, AGGREGALES, XRD, DIPHENYLMETHANE P, FRACTAL GEOMETRY