Study on the Complexation between Poly(amidoamine) Dendrimers and Silver Ion

The complexation between poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimers and silver ion was studied in this paper. The results showed that generations and surface groups of dendrimers, reaction time, pH value, mole ratio of Ag⁺/ PAMAM dendrimers, as well as reaction temperature strongly influence complexation between Ag⁺ and PAMAM dendrimers. The maximum complexing number of Ag⁺ that amino-, hydroxyl- and carboxylate- terminated PAMAM dendrimers could bind has been obtained. It has been found that the measured value of amino- and hydroxyl- terminated PAMAM is almost similar to the theory value, but to carboxylate- terminated PAMAM, there is a discrepancy between the measured value and theory value because of the electrostatic interaction between the silver ion and carboxyl group.