Alkyl-decorated dendrimers

For a general review on supramolecular chemistry with dendrimers, the reader is referred to an excellent paper of Zimmerman et al. [18]. Because of our acquaintance with the polylpropylene imine) dendrimers, we will restrict ourselves in this Chapter to some examples of supramolecular behaviour of these systems as investigated in our laboratory. Three systems will be discussed (Figure 1) the dendritic box, which can encapsulate guest molecules, the polystyrene-poly(propy-lene imine) block copolymer superamphiphiles, and alkyl-decorated dendrimers, which function as unimolecular micelles, and show surprising aggregation behaviour. However, first the synthesis and properties of the poly(propylene imine) dendrimers will be discussed to demonstrate some typical dendrimer features. 

In addition to alkyl-substituted derivatives, soluble PPPs 6 are also known today containing alkoxy groups as well as ionic side groups (carboxy and sulfonic acid functions) [18]. Schliiter et al. recently described the generation of soluble PPPs decorated with densely packed stcrically demanding dendrons on the formation of cylindrically shaped dendrimers, so-called cylinder dendrimers ] 19]. 

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