Synthesis of novel poly(ester amine) dendrimers by Michael addition and acrylate esterification

Dendrimers are a new kind of polymers. They have gained widespread attentions due to their remarkable properties in recent years. In the present work, a facile and efficient synthetic approach to prepare poly(ester amine) dendrimers is presented. Three different generations of poly(ester amine) dendrimers are synthesized starting from using pentaerythritol tetraacrylate as a core, followed by Michael addition and acrylate esterification reactions. This synthetic protocol is highly efficient, high yielding, and environmentally benign. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that these novel poly(ester amine) dendrimers are synthesized by using Michael addition reaction as the key step. The chemical structures of these poly(ester amine) dendrimers were measured with Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, NMR, elemental analysis, gas permeation chromatography, and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF). In addition, the hydroxyl value and solubilities of the poly(ester amine) dendrimers were also examined. These synthesized poly(ester amine) dendrimers, which have well-defined structures with very narrow polydispersities, can be used in many fields such as chemical engineering, medicine, and nanoengineering.