Quadruply hydrogen-bonded building block from hydrazide-quinolinone motif and gelation ability of its analogous oxalic monoester-monoamide derivative.

NMR and STM studies revealed that the hydrazide-quinolinone-based building block 5 exhibited a monomer-dimer-polymer equilibrium, while its acyclic analogue 6, due to conformational flexibility, exhibited a more complicated mode of aggregation and formed a gel in dichloromethane/hexane.