Water Soluble Polyphenylene Dendrimers as Nanocarriers

In contrast to dendrimers built up from aliphatic chains, polyphenylene dendrimer micelles possess shape and size persistent cavities due to their rigid scaffold which strongly depends on the type of dendrimer. In this case a selective incorporation of guest molecules, e.g., fluorescent dyes, should be possible, dependent on the size of the guest molecule and the cavity of the host. The non-covalent uptake of dyes with an appropriate size thus allows the investigation of their interactions within the dendritic micelle. In our case we made the second-generation polyphenylene dendrimer 48, which bears 16 carboxy-functions at the periphery, by starting from a tetrahedral core and an appropriately 

To estimate how many dye molecules fit into the dendritic micelles, UV-titra-tion experiments have been employed. In comparison with the spectra of a pure pinacyanol chloride solution in water, the peaks of the absorption maxima of the dye in the presence of the dendrimer are shifted bathochromically due to solvatochromic effects, which indicates the incorporation of the dye within the branches of the dendrimer. At dye-to-dendrimer molar ratios higher than 4 1, in addition to the bathochromic shifts, hypsochromically shifted peaks start to appear, indicating that the dendrimer is not incorporating further dyes. We interpret this as an incorporation of up to four dyes within the branches of the dendrimer. This observation correlates with the calculated available space within the dendrimer, obtained from the molecular simulations. Further studies of the interactions of the dyes within the dendritic micelle are in progress. 

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