Characterization of thin film properties of melamine based dendrimer nanoparticles

With the given information that dendrimers have precisely controlled their sizes and spherical structures in the molecular level, the aim of this study is to show that dendrimer particles can become ordered into a self-assembled regular structure due to the nature of their regular sizes and shapes. For this project, melamine based generation 3 dendrimer was used for solution cast of thin films from the dendrimer-chloroform solutions with different casting conditions, i.e. various solution concentrations, casting temperatures, and substrates. As a result of these experiments, unique phenomena of highly ordered uniform 2-D contraction separations were observed during the solvent evaporation from the dendrimer films. The cast films from the concentration of 0.8 wt% and higher exhibit regular 2-D separation contraction patterns and make well-developed regularly arrayed structures due to the interaction between the contraction stresses and adhesion strength between films and substrates. From the DSC tests, both powder and cast film samples of a dendrimer show similar melting behaviors with different areas under the melting peaks. The results of these tests show that dendrimers, when they are in a descent environment that provides dendrimers with molecular mobility due to surface ionic bonding strength, can make a structural order and regularity in their macroscopic structures.