An Overview on Smart pH Responsive Polymers

摘要

Now a day, a variety of synthetic polymers are synthesized by researchers in some useful manner to several variations in pH, temperature, electric, magnetic fields or other parameters. These polymers are named as stimuli-responsive, environmental-sensitive or smart polymers. These smart polymers are polyelectrolytes in nature and contain acidic/basic groups. They accept or sometimes release proton, in retort to pH change of the environment. The smart pH responsive polymers are manufactured by controlled radical polymerization methods. The smart pH responsive polymeric systems exhibit intelligent behaviour and therefore find numerous uses such as in personal care, delivery of drugs, oil exploration, coating of different objects in industry and water remediation etc. These smart polymers show an intense variation in physical and chemical properties with change in environmental conditions. These behaviours are used for developing several smart drug delivery systems. They deliver the drugs like, tumor drugs, anticancer drugs and antiviral drugs or anti-inflammatory drugs to minimize their toxic effect. Currently, the smart pH responsive polymers are being developed for various biomedical applications and especially for pH targeting nanomedicine.