Aliphatic Hyperbranched Poly（amido amine）s （PAMAMs） ： Preparation and Modification

A series of water soluble aliphatic hyperbranched poly(amido amine)s(PAMAMs) with the same or similar chemical structure of poly(amido amine) dendrimer was successfully synthesized from commercially available AB and Cn types of monomers by one-pot polymerization via the couple-monomer methodology(CMM). The AB type monomer used in this paper was methyl acrylate, and Cn monomers were multi-amino compounds such as ethylenediamine(EDA), diethylenetriamine(DETA), triethylenetetraamine(TETA), tetraethylenepentaamine(TEPA) and pentaethylenehexamine(PEHA). The reaction mechanism was investigated by means of the mass spectra of the reaction intermediates. Adjusting the feed ratio of AB to Cn, hyperbranched polymers with different terminal groups and properties were obtained. FTIR, NMR, DSC, and TGA were used to characterize the polymers. It was found that the polymers' properties such as solubility, thermal behaviour and encapsulation capability varied with changing the feed ratio of AB to Cn. Benzoyl and palmitoyl groups were introduced into these macromolecules by acidylation to form amphiphilic hyperbranched polymers which have a high capability to encapsulate water soluble dyes such as Congo red. It is expected that the hyperbranched PAMAMs can play an important role in the industrial applications, such as coatings, cross-linking and phase-transferring agents because of their versatility and availability.