Synergistic Supramolecular Encapsulation of Amphiphilic Hyperbranched Polymer to Dyes

A novel synergistic effect during supramolecular host−guest encapsulations of core−shell amphiphilic hyperbranched polymers to two kinds of dyes was reported. Two kinds of palmityl chloride-modified hyperbranched polymer, polyamidoamine (HPAMAM10K-C16) and poly(sulfone−amine) (HPSA11K-C16), were used as the hosts of supramolecular encapsulations, and water-soluble dyes such as methyl orange (MO) and methyl blue (MB) were selected as the corresponding guests. In cases of single-dye encapsulations, each host can extract one kind of guest from water phase into chloroform phase with a certain loading capacity (Cload). In the double-dye encapsulations, a pair of dyes, MO and MB, was employed as the guests. The Cload increased significantly for one or both of the pair dyes with the Cload of the single-dye encapsulation as the reference. This is defined as synergistic encapsulation in this paper. For the HPAMAM10K-C16, Cload of MO can be increased by about 100% with the cooperation of MB. For HPSA11K-C16, Cload ...