title: Assembly and mechanical properties of phosphorus dendrimer/polyelectrolyte multilayer microcapsules.
abstract: We report the preparation, characterization, and mechanical properties of polyelectrolyte/phosphorus dendrimer multilayer microcapsules. The shells of these microcapsules are composed either by alternating poly(styrenesulfonate) (PSS) and positively charged dendrimer G4(NH+Et2Cl-)96 or by alternating poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) and negatively charged dendrimer G4(CH-COO-Na+)96. The same multilayers were constructed on planar support to examine their layer-by-layer growth and to measure the multilayer thickness. Surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy (SPR) showed regular linear growth of the assembly upon each bilayer deposited. We probe the mechanical properties of these polyelectrolyte/dendrimer microcapsules by measuring force-deformation curves with the atomic force microscope (AFM). The experiment suggests that they are much softer than PSS/PAH microcapsules studied before. This softening is attributed to an enhanced permeability of the polyelectrolyte/dendrimer multilayer shells as compared with multilayers formed by linear polyelectrolytes. In contrast, Young's modulus of both dendrimer-based multilayers was found to be on the same order as that of PSS/PAH multilayers.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10, Mainz 55128, Germany.
authors.forename: Byoung-Suhk
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Olga V
authors.initials: OV
authors.lastname: Lebedeva
authors.forename: Dong Ha
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Anne-Marie
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Caminade
authors.forename: Jean-Pierre
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Majoral
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Knoll
authors.forename: Olga I
authors.initials: OI
authors.lastname: Vinogradova
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D002412:Cations; D050091:Dendrimers; D004573:Electrolytes; D007700:Kinetics; D008051:Lipid Bilayers / Q000737:chemistry; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D008956:Models, Chemical; D010758:Phosphorus / Q000737:chemistry*; D011073:Polyamines / Q000737:chemistry; D011137:Polystyrenes / Q000737:chemistry; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance
chemical_list: D002412:Cations; D050091:Dendrimers; D004573:Electrolytes; D008051:Lipid Bilayers; D011073:Polyamines; D011137:Polystyrenes; D010758:Phosphorus; C063994:polyallylamine; C003321:polystyrene sulfonic acid