Self-assembled gels have nanoscale ‘solid-like’ networks spanning across a liquid-like phase and are ideally suited for bringing these into intimate contact with polluted solution-phase media in an environmental setting, with the ultimate goal of environmental remediation.

Molecular material properties depend upon the contacts between and the arrangement of the component parts, and therefore supramolecular chemistry has developed a highly important role in this area.

Gel-phase materials are generated when molecular building blocks assemble into nanoscale architectures, usually ‘one-dimensional’ fibrils, which hierarchically assemble into bundles and subsequently form an entangled sample spanning network, capable of preventing the flow of bulk solvent. This tutorial review explores the vital role of chirality in gel formation. In particular, we focus on how fundamental self-assembly processes can translate molecular scale chiral information into nanoscale architectures, and then into the macroscopic behaviour of the gel. Chiral molecular gels have potential applications in nanofabrication and as addressable functional nanomaterials.