RECENT RESULTS ON FUNCTIONAL POLYMERS AND MACROMONOMERS OF INTEREST AS BIOMATERIALS OR FOR BIOMATERIAL MODIFICATION

Different families of functionalized polymers with potential as biomat erials, or for biomaterial modification, have been investigated. In pa rticular, degradation studies have been performed on poly(amidoamines) , a family of polymers obtained by polyaddition of amines to bisacryla mides, and endowed with heparin-complexing ability. Some new poly(amid oamines) with more resistance towards hydrolytic degradation than trad itional ones have been discovered. Other ter-amino polymers deriving f rom the polyaddition of ter-amino functionalized bis-thiols to bis-acr ylic esters, or other activated unsaturated compounds, have been studi ed. Their quaternarization products have been proven, in a parallel wo rk, to act as powerful antimicrobial agents. By performing in situ the polyaddition reaction, semi-interpenetrated networks based on silicon e rubber and the same polymers have been prepared. Finally, end-functi onalized amphiphilic oligomers have been prepared by radical polymeriz ation techniques, and their use for enzyme modification considered.