Design of PAMAM-COO dendron-grafted surfaces to promote Pb(II) ion adsorption

An expanding area of green technology is the wastewater treatment of heavy metal ions. As the adsorption of cations onto solid surfaces has been proven to be successful, recent research has demonstrated enhanced adsorption profiles by grafting dendron brushes onto a solid support. Via the molecular dynamics technique, we examine the adsorption of Pb(II) ions onto polyamidoamine (PAMAM) with carboxylate terminal groups through a coarse-grained implicit solvent model. We identify dendron generations and grafting densities, or surface coverage levels, which demonstrate optimal adsorption of Pb(II) ions. Our results can be potentially used to design functionalized surfaces for metal ion adsorption in application entailing environmental remediation or protective surface coating.