POLYMERIZATION OF MONOMERIC TO POLYMERIC VESICLES. CHARACTERIZATION AND APPLICATIONS

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Abstract
The first reports on the polymerization of monomeric vesicles to their polymerized counterparts [1–18] appeared in the literature in the early 1980s. The primary goal of this early work was to stabilize the relatively unstable monomeric vesicles in order to stimulate the function of biological membranes. Triggered by these at-tempts and the prospects for utilization of polymerized vesicles as energy conversion systems [19–23], as drug-carriers [24–26] in medicine, and as media for the performance of biomimetic reactions [27], the subject of formation and characterization of polymerized vesicles has matured significantly in the last 10 years. In the early stages of research following the molecular requirements that had been set for the synthesis of vesicle-forming surfactants, a great number of polymerizable amphiphiles were prepared. However, these first primarily synthetic investigations were followed by more elaborate studies on the kinetics and mechanisms of polymerization coupled with comparative characterization of monomeric and polymerized vesicles. One example is the elucidation of the photochemical polymerization of a styrene-bearing quaternary ammonium salt and the finding that polymerized vesicles consisted of several polymer surfactants which assembled to form aggregates [48, 49]. Another major problem which has been addressed in the field of polymerized vesicles is that these aggregates are not exclusively formed under topochemical conditions, i.e., from their monomers organized into monomeric vesicles, but they may also be formed with sonication of polymeric surfactants, obtained with homogeneous polymerization of appropriate vesicle-forming monomers [44]. In conjunction with these results, studies should be mentioned in which the stabilization of vesicles is accomplished by the polymerization of counterions, leading to vesicles covered by protective polymers [56, 57].