Applications of Dendronized Supports

The potential of dendronized supports to serve as stationary phases for various separation techniques has been explored by a number of research groups. One of the most important applications in this field is the use of dendron-modified support as chiral stationary phase (CSP) for separation of enantiomers. An unsuccessful attempt to do so was reported by Mitchell and coworkers, who used poly-L-glutamate dendrons postsynthetically immobilized on silica. ... 

In addition to the already broadly studied applications, there are a number of those that have barely been proposed, sometimes supported by a limited feasibility study, for example, the use of supported dendrons as synthetic intermediates for the preparation of drug or gene dehvery vehicles, for the construction of nanoparticles, and for the assembly of probes for the study of biochemical processes. The use of dendronized supports as tools for multivalent molecular recognition has also hardly been explored. New applications may emerge, though naturally they are more difhcult to foresee. For instance, support-bound probes for investigation of enzymatic activity, which will exploit the multivalency and the proximity of the dendritic arms, may follow the examples of the detachable dendritic probes. ... 

Another application of the rearrangement in dendrimers focuses on the development of novel polythioether dendrons on a solid support for supported catalysis applications [94]. 

In this chapter, we will first discuss the synthetic approaches and sequences that lead to the supported dendrons and then review the applications of these materials. A number of... 

Although part of the dendron-support hybrids are prepared for the subsequent use as new materials, in other cases these constructs are only intermediates en route to production of soluble dendrons. In these cases, the solid-phase synthesis technique was chosen as a synthetic approach to the preparation of dendrons, designated for application in solution. 

One of the most important applications of the dendronized supports is the preparation of support-bound dendritic catalysts. Such systems, based on outward branching dendrons, were prepared and explored by the groups of Alper and Arya, Reymond, Portnoy, Kawi, Rhee, and Sreekumar. A number of heterogeneous dendritic catalysts based on a different design (e.g., polymerized dendrimers bearing catalytic units) are also known, but are beyond the scope of this book. ° ... 

Today, dendronized supports are well-established tools in the arsenal of synthetic, catalytic, and polymer chemists and their uses are extending to the areas of bio- and materials sciences. One may hope that new and fascinating synthetic schemes and applications will follow. 

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