Strong blue photoluminescence and ECL from OH-terminated PAMAM dendrimers in the absence of gold nanoparticles.

A product showing strong blue photoluminescence was obtained by oxidation of OH-terminated PAMAM dendrimers, such as G4-OH, G2-OH, and G0-OH, with HAuCl4 or (NH4)2S2O8. The fluorescence emission spectrum peaked at 450 nm, while the excitation maximum was at 380 nm, independent of the generation of dendrimer. The product also shows two weak electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) signals upon cycling the potential between about 1.2 and −1.7 V.