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In an aqueous system, the polar heads of lipids align towards the polar, aqueous environment, while the hydrophobic tails minimize their contact with water and tend to cluster together, forming a vesicle; depending on the concentration of the lipid, this biophysical interaction may result in the formation of micelles, liposomes, or lipid bilayers.
A monomer (/ ˈ m ɒ n ə m ər / MON-ə-mər; mono-, "one" + -mer, "part") is a molecule that can react together with other monomer molecules to form a larger polymer chain or three-dimensional network in a process called polymerization.
Many macromolecules are polymers of smaller molecules called monomers. The most common macromolecules in biochemistry are biopolymers (nucleic acids, proteins, and carbohydrates) and large non-polymeric molecules such as lipids, nanogels and macrocycles. [1]
Lipids (oleaginous) are chiefly fatty acid esters, and are the basic building blocks of biological membranes. Another biological role is energy storage (e.g., triglycerides). Most lipids consist of a polar or hydrophilic head (typically glycerol) and one to three non polar or hydrophobic fatty acid tails, and therefore they are amphiphilic.
In polymer chemistry, a macromonomer (or macromer) is a macromolecule with one end-group that enables it to act as a reactive monomer and undergo further polymerization. Macromonomers will contribute a single repeat unit to a chain of the completed macromolecule. [2] [3] [4]
Polymer nomenclature is generally based upon the type of monomer residues comprising the polymer. A polymer which contains only a single type of repeat unit is known as a homopolymer, while a polymer containing two or more types of repeat units is known as a copolymer. [22] A terpolymer is a copolymer which contains three types of repeat units ...
Lipids are usually made from one molecule of glycerol combined with other molecules. In triglycerides , the main group of bulk lipids, there is one molecule of glycerol and three fatty acids . Fatty acids are considered the monomer in that case, and maybe saturated (no double bonds in the carbon chain) or unsaturated (one or more double bonds ...
Like other polymers, biopolymers consist of monomeric units that are covalently bonded in chains to form larger molecules. There are three main classes of biopolymers, classified according to the monomers used and the structure of the biopolymer formed: polynucleotides, polypeptides, and polysaccharides.