In vitro studies on biodegradable chiral nanostructure poly(amide-imide)s containing different natural amino acids in green medium

Abstract

α-Amino acids, as one type of the major building blocks of living systems, are the principal components of all naturally occurring peptides and proteins. The aim of this paper was to synthesize and characterize of novel chiral nanostructured poly(amide-imide)s (PAIs) that are biologically active and biodegradable under a natural environment. PAIs were prepared from the polycondensation reaction of optically active diacids monomers containing different natural amino acids with 4,4′-methylene bis(3-chloro-2,6- diethylaniline) in molten tetrabutylammonium bromide as a green solvent. In vitro fungal colonization and weight loss studies showed that the synthetic polymer having alanine amino acid is biologically more active compared to the other components, nontoxic to microbial growth and could be classified as biodegradable compounds. The synthesized PAIs were characterized by different techniques. The field-emission scanning electron microscopy showed that the obtained PAIs were nanostructured polymers. Copyright © 2013 Taylor & Francis.