Self-Assembly of Glycol Chitosan Amphiphiles

Palmitoyl glycol chitosan is an amphiphilic polymer with a hydrophilic backbone (made up of glycol chitosan molecules) bearing a pendant hydrophobic chain palmitic acid attached at the i2 position on its hydrophilic back bone. Quaternary ammonium palmitoyl glycol chitosan is a quaternised derivative of the palmitoyl glycol chitosan with improved aqueous solubility. An attempt was made to synthesis, and study its packing parameters extensively with a view to obtaining critical information about how to optimise its use as a encapsulating material for drug delivery. Polymers with higher molecular weights were found to aggregate at much lower concentrations and produce smaller nanoparticles as long as level of hydrophobic substitution (palmitoylation) was kept within (2-30) mole%, thus confirming previous pioneering work in which vesicle sizes where linked to the polymer molecular weight.