Chapter 3 - Calixarene-based micelles: Properties and applications

Abstract

Many artificial micellar structures have been developed in the last few decades, starting from amphiphilic building blocks of a different nature. Among them, amphiphilic calixarenes have attracted much attention. The remarkable synthetic versatility, the ability to arrange multiple polar and a polar moieties onto the two rims of the macrocycle in a well-defined 3D-structure, and the presence of a hydrophobic host cavity, are unique and peculiar characteristics making the calix[n]arene macrocycles more applicable than small amphiphilic molecules in the realization of stable micelles. This chapter reports on the methods used for the physicochemical characterization of calixarene micelles, and role played by structural conformation of the calix[n]arene skeleton, length of hydrophobic chains, and structure of polar head groups in the aggregation behavior. The micelles are subdivided into anionic, cationic, zwitterionic, nonionic, reversed, stimulus-responsive, and bicomponent. Potential applications of micellar calixarenes in pharmaceutical nanotechnology are also described.