Macromolecules, Vol.41, No.22, 8372-8379, 2008
New Dendrimers: Synthesis and Characterization of POPAM-PAMAM Hybrid Dendrimers
Recently developed multifunctional cancer therapeutic nanodevice production is based on poly(amidoamine) PAMAM generation 5 (G5) dendrimer as a carrier. Scale-up synthesis of this nanodevice is limited because of long reaction sequence (12 reaction steps) and long and not easy work-up of the products after each reaction step. Combination of poly(propylenimine) and poly(amidoamine) synthesis can improve the production of the drug carrier. In this paper we give a general overview of the synthesis and characterization of a series of novel hybrid dendrimers which we coined as novel POMAM hybrid dendrimers, constructed from poly(propylenimine) (PPI or POPAM) core and poly(amidoamine) PAMAM shells. The synthesis was accomplished by a divergent reiterating method involving repeating subsequent Michael addition and amidation reactions. Each generation of the newly synthesized dendrimer was characterized by using HPLC, GPC, NMR, and AFM.