Highly stable dendrimer-encapsulated Pd nanoparticles in ionic liquids were prepared for the first time by using charged PAMAM dendrimers as templates, which could maintain hydrogenation efficiency for up to at least 12 recycles.

A marked increase of relaxivity has been observed upon rigidifying the internal frame of Gd-containing PAMAM dendrimers: the effect has been attained by either protonation of the dendrimer or by forming supramolecular adducts with cationic polyaminoacids.

The effect of 5th generation polyamidoamine (PAMAM G5) dendrimers on multilamellar dipalmitoylphosphocholine (DPPC) vesicles was investigated. PAMAM was added in two different concentrations to the lipids (10(-3) and 10(-2) dendrimer/lipid molar ratios). The thermal behavior of the evolved systems was characterized by DSC; while the structure and the morphology were investigated with small- and...

Advances in industrial ecology, desalination, and resource recovery have established that industrial wastewater, seawater, and brines are important and largely untapped sources of critical metals and elements. A Grand Challenge in metal recovery from industrial wastewater is to design and synthesize high capacity, recyclable and robust chelating ligands with tunable metal ion selectivity that c...

Nanoparticles carrying biologically active functional sets (e.g., targeting moiety, payload, tracer) have potential use in a wide range of clinical applications. Though complex, such constructions should, as far as possible, have a defined molecular architecture and be monodisperse. However, the existing methods to achieve this goal are unsuitable for the incorporation of peptides and proteins,...

Diabetes mellitus, which is characterised by high blood glucose levels and the burden of various macrovascular and microvascular complications, is a cause of much human suffering across the globe. While the use of exogenous insulin and other medications can control and sometimes prevent various diabetes-associated sequelae, numerous diabetic complications are still commonly encountered in diabe...

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women in the United States, and survival rates are lower for patients with metastases and/or triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC; ER, PR, and Her2 negative). Understanding the mechanisms of cancer metastasis is therefore crucial to identify new therapeutic targets and develop novel treatments to improve patient outcomes. A potent...

Short double-stranded RNAs, which are known as short interfering RNA (siRNA), can be used to specifically down-regulate the expression of the targeted gene in a process known as RNA interference (RNAi). However, the success of gene silencing applications based on the use of synthetic siRNA critically depends on efficient intracellular delivery. Polycationic branched macromolecules such as poly(...

Superparamagnetic multi-walled carbon nanotubes (mMWCNTs) were prepared by filling multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with iron oxide, and further modified by linking polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers (mMWCNTs-PAMAM) on the surface. Then, mMWCNTs-PAMAM was employed as the carrier and successfully immobilized Burkholderia cepacia lipase (BCL) via a covalent method (BCL-mMWCNTs-G3). The maxim...

Two series of uracil-functionalized dendritic macromolecules based on poly (amidoamine) PAMAM and 2,2-bis(hydroxymethylpropionic acid) bis-MPA backbones were prepared and their photoinduced (2pþ2p) cycloaddition reactions upon exposure to UV light at 257 nm examined. Dendrimers up to 4th generation were synthesized and investigated as potential materials for high capacity optical data storage w...