Polymer molecular weight, branched chains, the water solubility of the monomers, and other factors are responsible for the hydrophobicity of a polymer. A wide range of hydrophobic polymers are developed in drug delivery applications, including polycarbonates (PCs), polycaprolactone (PCL), poly(lactic acid) (PLA), Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA), etc. The hydrophilic/hydrophobic property of the polymer is one of the main parameters affecting drug release from the polymer matrix. Highly hydrophobic polymers exhibit poor contact angle, thus limiting the diffusion of aqueous solutions to the polymer matrix. Thus, hydrophobic polymer composites exhibit long-term drug release, which is mainly due to the diffusion of the drug through the matrix. In contract, hydrophilic polymers are highly swelling, which promotes the diffusion of drugs into the medium. In addition, amphiphilic copolymers formed by linking hydrophilic and hydrophobic polymers through a redox linker are capable of self-assembling in aqueous medium and encapsulating hydrophobic drugs in their cores as drug redox-responsive drug delivery systems. Biodegradable and biocompatible hydrophobic polymers have a wide range of biomedical applications. Polyglycolic acid (PGA), polycaprolactone (PCL), poly(trimethylene carbonate) (PTMC), polyphosphazene, polyurethanes (PUR), and other hydrophobic biodegradable polymers have attracted great interest in the field of tissue engineering because of their adaptability and suppleness to generate well-defined porous scaffolds with different structures and geometries for specific tissue engineering applications. Cells are cultured under mechanical stimulation in scaffolds to exploit the elastic properties of these polymers to construct tissue-like structures.
Amerigo Scientific offers a wide range of hydrophobic polymers that can be used as coatings, adhesives, fibers, films, drug delivery carries, and cell culture scaffolds.
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