The effect of the charge of astramol™ poly(propylene imine) dendrimers on interaction with polyanionic gels

The effect of the charge of Astramol^? poly(propylene imine) dendrimers of the third and fourth generations on activated sorption of dendrimer molecules by weakly crosslinked polyanionic networks was studied. It was shown that the formed interpolyelectrolyte complex was markedly enriched in the weakly charged dendrimer as the degree of dendrimer neutralization decreased. As was found, depending on the conditions of sorption of dendrimers by oppositely charged networks, this process leads to the formation of either macroscopically heterogeneous “shell-core” structures or microheterogeneous composites with uniform distribution of micrometer-sized clusters of dendrimer molecules in the gel matrix. The structure of such systems separated at the microphase level was studied by the laser scattering technique. Their high ordering was established, and the reasons behind the formation of various alternative heterophase systems were discussed.