The invention relates to oligomers of cholic acid, cholate derivatives and amino acids called “foldamers” that undergo conformational changes in response to changes in temperature, solvent polarity, small molecules, metal ions, and pH. The foldamers can be used in self-assembling monolayers, or as environmental probes to detect changes in the environment, or as protective agents useful for protecting labile materials from the environment, or as a controlled delivery system for delivering drugs and other useful agents to specific in vivo or in vitro sites.