Synthesis of N stearoyl-L-glutamic acid (C₁₈-Glu), a new gelator with multi H bonding sites, and N stearoyl-L-glutamic diethyl ester (C₁₈-Glu-2ES) were reported.The previously reported synthetic route of C₁₈-Glu is that stearoyl chloride was dropwise added into disodium L glutamate solution in a mixture of acetone and water ( J.Am.Oil Chem.Soc .1972, 49, 157 and Langmiur , 2001, 17, 1317).However, our experimental results indicated that one of the by product HCl, could catalyze the yielded C₁₈-Glu to react further with L glutamate to give more side-products.Therefore, the further workup became more difficult and the pure C₁₈-Glu was difficult to be obtained.Here, we synthesized C₁₈-Glu by the following two routes.One is from L-glutamic diethyl ester and stearic acid using dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCC) as a catalyzer.The other is from stearoyl chloride and L-glutamic diethyl ester.These two synthetic routes can all give out C₁₈-Glu with satisfactory characteristic data.Moreover, The gelating properties of C₁₈-Glu and C₁₈-Glu-2ES were also investigated.C₁₈-Glu can gel chloroform and 1:1 mixed ethanol/water, while C₁₈-Glu-2ES can form organogels in more solvents such as petroleum ether, hexane, acetone, ethanol, and 3:7 mixed ethanol/water.AFM images indicated that C₁₈-Glu self-assembled into nanowires in chloroform, while C₁₈-Glu-2ES into lamellar-like microstructures in 3:7 mixed ethanol/water.

Key words: organogel, N-stearoyl-L-glutamic acid, self-assembly, microstrutcure