Acceleration of an aminolysis reaction using a PAMAM dendrimer with 64 terminal amine groups

When compared to an equivalent amine concentration (N-acetylethylene diamin e, 64 equivalents), the initial rate of a simple deacylation reaction in wa ter was found to be greatly enhanced when using a PAMAM dendrimer with 64 t erminal amine groups. This increase in initial late is largely due to the h ydrophobic binding of the substrate within the outer region of the dendrime r. As a consequence of this binding, the substrate is held in close proximi ty to the reactive amine groups on the surface of the dendrimer. It is this increase in effective molarity that results in an increase in the observed initial rate. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.