Self-Assembly of Water-Soluble Dendrimers into Thermoreversible Hydrogels and Macroscopic Fibers

Hydrogels and macroscopic fibers are formed through the salt-induced self-assembly of water-soluble polycationic phosphorus dendrimers. Interestingly, the hydrogels are thermoreversible and the sol-gel transition temperature can be easily tuned in a wide range of temperatures (approximately 2-80 degrees C). The effects of different parameters, such as salt nature, dendrimer generation, concentration, and temperature, on dendrimer aggregation are examined. The macroscopic fibers are prepared by flocculation under flow and observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) which reveals a microscopic fibrillar substructure. We interpret the gelation and flocculation of the polycationic dendrimers in terms of colloidal flocculation.