Chemical Physics Letters, Vol.446, No.4-6, 350-353, 2007
Crystallization in concentrated dendrimer solutions
We investigate the structural formation of concentrated dendrimer solution by coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations. With larger electrostatic screening lengths, dendrimer molecules form a crystalline structure. Dendrimer crystals melt when the screening length is decreased, ultimately showing the incipient phenomena of dendrimer aggregation. We study the profiles of the radial distribution function and the mean square displacement of dendrimer molecules in concentrated solutions, and discuss the melting transition of dendrimer crystal in terms of the Lindemann criterion. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.