Publication Type Journal Article
Title Deswelling and Electrolyte Dissipation in Free Diffusion of Charged PAMAM Dendrimers
Authors Emilio Garcia-Fernandez Pedro M. R. Paulo
Groups MPPM
Journal JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY LETTERS
Year 2014
Month April
Volume 5
Number 8
Pages 1472-1478
Abstract The diffusion coefficient of charged PAMAM dendrimers was measured by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy in aqueous solution at submicromolar concentrations. The solution pH was varied for conditions ranging from a fully charged to neutral charge dendrimer to infer about electrostatic swelling in the dilute regime. The diffusion coefficient of generation G4 increases by as much as 20\% between high and low charge conditions due to the combined effects of polyelectrolyte deswelling and loss of electrolyte dissipation. By taking into account the electrolyte dissipation in the friction factor, we have found that the observed deswelling corresponds to a change of hydrodynamic radius between 7-13\% for generation G4 and about 12\% for generation G7. Simulations of molecular dynamics of dendrimer G4 show that counterion uptake by the dendrimer structure upon full protonation induces a 16\% increase of its radius of gyration. The change in dendrimer size is slightly larger than that previously reported from neutron scattering techniques, thereby suggesting that electrostatic swelling is more pronounced at dilute dendrimer concentration and low ionic strength. It is confirmed that even higher generations, which have more congested molecular structures, can experience some degree of conformational change in response to a change of the dendrimer charge density.
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jz500531c
ISBN
Publisher AMER CHEMICAL SOC
Book Title
ISSN 1948-7185
EISSN
Conference Name
Bibtex ID ISI:000334731700029
Observations
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