Monitoring Dendrimer Conformational Transition using 19 F and 1 H 2 O NMR.

The conformational transition of a fluorinated amphiphilic dendrimer is monitored by the 1 H signal from water, alongside the 19 F signal from the dendrimer. High-field NMR data (chemical shift δ, self-diffusion coefficient D, longitudinal relaxation rate R1 , and transverse relaxation rate R2 ) for both dendrimer (19 F) and water (1 H) match each other in detecting the conformational transition. Among all parameters for both nuclei, water proton transverse relaxation rate R2 (1 H2 O) displays the highest relative scale of change upon conformational transition of the dendrimer. Hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry reveals that the compact form of the dendrimer has slower proton exchange with water than the extended form. This result suggests that the sensitivity of R2 (1 H2 O) toward dendrimer conformation originates from the difference in proton exchange efficiency between different dendrimer conformations. Finally, we also demonstrated that this conformational transition could be conveniently monitored using low-field benchtop NMR spectrometer via R2 (1 H2 O). The 1 H2 O signal thus offers a potential simple way to monitor structural changes of macromolecules using benchtop time-domain NMR.