PAMAM dendrimers as quantized building blocks for novel nanostructures

Abstract

The desire to synthesize soft supramolecular structures with size scales similar to biological systems has led to work in assembly of polymeric nanomaterials. Recent advances in the isolation of generationally homogenous poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimer enables their use as quantized building blocks. Here, we report their assembly into precise nanoclusters. In this work, click-functional ligands are stochastically conjugated to monomeric generation 5 PAMAM dendrimer and separated via reverse-phase HPLC to isolate dendrimers with precise numbers of click ligands per dendrimer particle. The click-ligand/dendrimer conjugates are then employed as modular building blocks for the synthesis of defined nanostructures. Complimentary click chemistry employing dendrimers with 1, 2, 3, or 4 ring-strained cyclooctyne ligands and dendrimers with 1 azide ligand were utilized to prepare megamer structures containing two to five 30 000 kDa monomer units as characterized by mass spectrometry, size exclusion chromatography, and reverse-phase liquid chromatography. The resulting structures are flexible with masses ranging from 60 000 to 150 000 kDa, and are soluble in water, methanol, and dimethylsulfoxide.