We formed gels from a range of LMWG (Fig. ). Based on gelation at physiological conditions, we focused on one system (Figure ). The advantage of this system is that gelation can be induced by the addition of a TRIS buffer solution to a concentrated solution of the LMWG at pH 8 to give a final self-supporting material at pH 6.8. The mechanical properties can be tuned by the addition of a calcium salt (Figure ). In the absence of the calcium salt the system has relatively low storage (G¢) and loss (G²) moduli, with the material breaking at low strain (<1%). In the presence of the calcium salt, the moduli are improved, but crucially the material still breaks at low strain (Figure , Figure ). Using small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS, Figure and S4, Table and) to probe the sample without salt, the scattering data can be fit simply to a power law (Figure , red), suggesting the presence of large heterogeneities in the network or irregular aggregates in the gel. The data for the gel prepared in presence of CaCl2 could be fit to an elliptical cylinder model combined with a power law (Figure , black). The data further presents a peak at q = 0.154 Å (d = 40.8 Å), which suggests that the gelator fibers are part of a periodic arrangement in the structure with a crystalline character. Circular dichroism (CD) indicates a different arrangement in the secondary structures of the systems. The CD spectrum of the sample without any salt exhibits a negative band with a shoulder in the range of 200-240 nm (Figure , red). The sample with CaCl2 shows a negative band around 235 nm and a positive band occurring near 190 nm, which could be indicative of a β-sheet-like arrangement (Figure , black).