Dendrimer–Fullerenol
Soft-Condensed Nanoassembly
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Abstract
Nanoscale assembly is an area of research that has vast
implications for molecular design, sensing, nanofabrication, supramolecular
chemistry, catalysis, and environmental remediation. Here we show
that poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimers of both generations 1 (G1)
and 4 (G4) can host 1 fullerenol per 2 dendrimer primary amines as
evidenced by isothermal titration calorimetry, dynamic light scattering,
and spectrofluorometry. Thermodynamically, the interactions were similarly
spontaneous between both generations of dendrimers and fullerenols,
however, G4 formed stronger complexes with fullerenols resulting from
their higher surface charge density and more internal voids, as demonstrated
by spectrofluorometry. In addition to hydrogen bonding that existed
between the dendrimer primary amines and the fullerenol oxygens, hydrophobic
and electrostatic interactions also contributed to complex formation
and dynamics. Such a hybrid of soft and condensed nanoassembly may
have implications for environmental remediation of discharged nanomaterials
and entail new applications in drug delivery