刺激响应聚合物是当今材料科学研究的热点之一。其在外界刺激下,自身的物理或者化学性质发生变化产生响应,在药物可控释放、生物传感器、催化、吸附分离等方面有广阔的应用。胆汁酸是天然的甾类生物分子,其分子结构中含有羟基和羧基等官能团,容易进行化学修饰,且具有双亲性和一定的刚性。在聚合物中引入胆汁酸分子,能够从结构和功能两个方面丰富刺激响应高分子的研究。一方面,胆汁酸及修饰的胆汁酸既可以作为单体直接聚合,也可以被连接到含有一定官能团的聚合物上,由此可以得到以胆汁酸作为主链、侧基、端基,以及胆汁酸作为星形聚合物的核等多种聚合物结构。另一方面,胆汁酸的引入不仅可以提高聚合物的生物相容性,有效地赋予聚合物胆汁酸结构的独特性质,而且可以用于构建具有一定刺激响应功能的组装结构,进而应用于形状记忆、手性分离、药物载体等材料中。本文综述了基于胆汁酸的刺激响应聚合物近年来的相关工作,从基于胆汁酸的刺激响应聚合物的分子设计和结构构筑出发,结合其性质和应用进行论述,也对该领域的改进和发展提出展望。
The development of stimuli-responsive polymers has become an important research topic in material science. These polymers can respond to external stimuli, such as light, molecules, redox, pH, temperature and so on. They can undergo physical or chemical changes, for example, gel-sol transition and change of volume. Therefore, they can be widely applied in controlled drug release and biosensors. Bile acids are natural biological molecules in the steroid family bearing hydroxyl and carboxyl functional groups, which can be modified easily and they also have amphiphilic and rigid structure and excellent biocompatibility. The incorporation of bile acids can enrich the structures and functions of the stimuli responsive polymers. On one hand, bile acids or modified ones can either act as monomers for polymerization or be modified to functional groups in polymers. Therefore, different structures of polymers, with bile acids as the main chain, side groups, end groups and core of the star polymers, can be achieved. On the other hand, the introduction of bile acids can not only improve the biocompatibility of the materials, but also change the chemical property of polymers, thus broadening their functions in applications as shape memory materials, chiral separation and drug delivery systems. This paper reviews the recent related work, including the molecular design, structural construction and properties of these polymers. The prospect of future development of polymers containing bile acids is also discussed.