Counterion condensation and effective charge of PAMAM dendrimers

Abstract

PAMAM dendrimers are used as a model system to investigate the effects of counterion condensation and the effective charge for spherical polyelectrolytes. Because of their amino groups, PAMAM dendrimers are weak polyelectrolytes. Lowering the pH results in an increasing protonation of the amino groups which is monitored via the proton chemical shifts of the adjacent CH2 groups. The effective charge is determined from a combination of diffusion and electrophoresis NMR. The fraction of the charges, which are effective for the interaction with an external electric field or other charges, decreases with increasing generation (size) of the dendrimers.