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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011
Gold-dendrimer nanocomposite materials have various applications in catalysis, optics, biological sensing, cancer therapeutics, as well as building blocks to assemble functional films. Primary amine-terminated poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimers of different generations (generation 2 through 6) were used as templates to synthesize gold-dendrimer hybrid nanocomposites. UV-Vis spectrometry, fluorescence, transmission electron microscope (TEM), zeta-potential, and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) were used to extensively characterize these nanocomposite materials. Results indicate that the structure of gold-dendrimer nanocomposites changes as the function of generation and their size decreases with the increase of the generation number of dendrimer templates. TEM shows that aggregated gold-dendrimer nanocomposites are polycrystalline. These nanocomposites are fluorescent and display a stronger emission intensity (458 nm) than commercially available gold nanoparticles of similar size do. PAGE analysis shows that the gold-dendrimer nanocomposites have electrophoretic migration patterns that are similar to those of the corresponding dendrimer templates. The combination of applied different analytical techniques provides new insights into the structure and properties of gold-dendrimer nanocomposite materials.