Dendrimer encapsulation effects

The potential of dendrimers to encapsulate molecular species is further examined from the perspective of catalysis and the ability to improve reaction rates and yields. As well, their use as components facilitating chromatographic separations is discussed. Finally, the use of dendrimers to effect noneovalent molecular ordering is examined. 

Aranishi K, Zhu QL, Xu Q. Dendrimer-encapsulated cobalt nanoparticles as high- performance catalysts for the hydrolysis of ammonia borane. Chem Cat Chem 2014 6 1375-9. Mizugaki T, et al. PAMAM dendron-stabilised palladium nanoparticles effect of generation and peripheral groups on particle size and hydrogenation activity. Chem Commun 2008 241-3. 

Nishiyama N, Jang WD, Kataoka K (2007) Supramolecular nanocarriers integrated with dendrimers encapsulating photosensitizers for effective photodynamic therapy and photochemical gene delivery. New J Chem 31 1074—1082. doi 10.1039/b616050f... 

Knecht MR, Weir MG, Myers VS, Pyrz WD, Ye HC, Petkov V, Buttrey DJ, Frenkel Al, Crooks RM (2008) Synthesis and characterization of Pt dendrimer-encapsulated nanoparticles effect of the template on nanoparticle formation. Chem Mater 20 5218... 

The ability of a dendritic shell to encapsulate a functional core moiety and to create a specific site-isolated microenvironment capable of affecting the molecular properties has been intensively explored in recent years [19]. A variety of experimental techniques have been employed to evidence the shielding of the core moiety and to ascertain the effect of the dendritic shell [19, 20]. Dendrimers with a fullerene core appear to be appealing candidates to evidence such effects resulting from the presence of the surrounding dendritic branches. Effectively, the lifetime of the first triplet excited state of fullerene derivatives... 

This manuscript describes the dendritic macromolecules for optical and optoelectronic apph-cations, particularly stimulated emission, laser emission, and nonlinear optics. Dendrimers have been designed and synthesized for these applications based on simple concepts. A coreshell structure, through the encapsulation of active imits by dendritic branches, or a cone-shaped structure, through the step-by-step reactions of active imits, can provide particular benefits for the optical high-gain media and nonlinear optical materials. It also described experimental results that support the methods presented for designing and fabricating functionalized dendrimers for optoelectronic applications, and theoretical results that reveal the intermolecular electronic effect of the dendritic structure. 

We have found that dendrimers can be used to encapsulate active moieties, thereby preventing them from interacting. This passivation effect limits inter-molecular interactions such as self-aggregation and molecular clustering. We also found that dendrimers can be made dipolar. This asymmetry in molecular orientation enables dendrimers to be used in NLO. In this chapter we describe our application of dendrimers to lasers and NLO. 

Toluene solutions of Pd encapsulated within dendrimer-templated inverted micelles have been tested for catalytic activity by examining their effectiveness towards hydrogenation of allyl alcohol in organic solvents [19]. The reaction product was confirmed to be n-propanol by H NMR spectroscopy, and the turnover frequency, calculated from the rate of hydrogen uptake, was 760 mol H2 (mol Pd) h at 20 °C. This value compares favorably with the value of 218 mol H2 (mol Pd) h obtained for the same reaction carried out in water using Pd nanoparticles encapsulated in hydroxy-terminated dendrimers. 

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