Spectrophotometric titration of bimetallic metal cation binding in polyamido(amine) dendrimer templates

Spectrophotometric titration and a binding isotherm were used to accurately assess the loading capacity of generation four polyamido(amine) (PAMAM) dendrimer templates with terminal alcohol groups (G4-OH). Preparation of bimetallic G4-OH dendrimer-encapsulated metal nanoclusters (DENs) necessitates knowledge of the precise metal-ion binding capacity. The binding of metal ions such as Pt(2+) and Pd(2+) has proven difficult to assess via UV-vis spectroscopy because the absorbance shifts associated with metal-ion binding within the dendrimer template are masked by the absorbance of the PAMAM dendrimer itself. In contrast, the binding of Cu(2+) to G4-OH PAMAM dendrimer results in a strong, distinct absorption band at 300 nm, making UV-vis spectrophotometric titration with copper straightforward. Here we use copper binding as a means to assess the number of binding sites remaining within the PAMAM G4-OH dendrimer after the complexation of a specified molar excess of Pd(2+) or Pt(2+). In addition, we use a binding isotherm to mathematically estimate the loading capacity of the dendrimer in each case. The loading capacities for M(2+) in the G4-OH dendrimer were found to be ∼16 for copper alone, ∼21 for copper combined with palladium, and ∼25 for copper combined with platinum.