Collection of Czechoslovak Chemical Communications - digital archive 

Abstract

This review deals with the use of bile acids as building blocks of amphiphilic polymers. These natural polyfunctional organic molecules have been employed in the synthesis of macromolecules combining hydrophilic and hydrophobic sequences. The two main synthetic strategies are radical (co)polymerization after attachment of a vinyl group onto the bile acid and molecule grafting of bile acid onto a hydrophilic polymer. The physicochemical properties of the resulting polymers both as bulk materials and in aqueous solution are reviewed and compared with polymers of other structures. Whenever possible, semiquantitative correlations are established and discussed.

Keywords: Bile acids; Amphiphilic polymers; Polysaccharides; Macromolecules; Steroids; Copolymerizations; Hydrophilic materials.

References: 104 live references.