The branching angle effect on the properties of rigid dendrimers studied by Monte Carlo simulation

We studied the properties of rigid dendrimers with different branching angles by means of Monte Carlo simulations on a coarse-grained level. It was found that the terminal groups of dendrimers with both rigid and flexible spacers could locate near the center of the molecule. In flexible dendrimers, the wide distribution is attributed to the back folding of flexible spacers, while in rigid dendrimers, it is caused by the branching angle effect that a branch will grow laterally due to the restriction of a non-zero branching angle. It has been established that the branching angle is a key parameter for rigid dendrimers, which can be applied to tune the properties of rigid dendrimers: decreasing branching angle is helpful to obtain dendrimers with a larger size, lower density, and more terminal groups locating at periphery.