Colloid–dendrimer complexation

Abstract

We consider amphiphilic dendrimers of the second generation by an appropriate modeling of the inter-monomer interactions, introducing suitable attractive microscopic potentials between the inner, solvophobic monomers and repulsive potentials between the outer, solvophilic ones. By employing Monte Carlo simulations, we examine the selective adsorption of such dendrimers onto compact colloidal particles that attract either the core or the shell of the dendrimer, while repelling the rest of the molecule. We measure the effective colloidal–dendrimer interaction and we analyze in detail the conformations of the dendrimer close to the colloid in dependence of the radius of the latter and the microscopic energy parameters. A dendron-by-dendron adsorption of the dendrimer on the colloid under suitable conditions is discovered.