Dendrimers advantages

Metal-functionalized dendritic assemblies have been demonstrated to be a fertile area with competitive potential for purely organic structures for their photonic properties [29]. This chapter aims at providing on overview of the different outstanding possibilities that dendrimers advantageously offer, first from a fundamental perspective by describing the main routes to build these nanometer-sized species, and then, by describing their photophysical properties, and eventually to the applications developed for these materials in various areas. 

It is possible to take advantage of the differing characteristics of the periphery and the interior to promote chemical reactions. For example, a dendrimer having a non-polar aliphatic periphery with highly polar inner branches can be used to catalyse unimolecular elimination reactions in tertiary alkyl halides in a non-polar aliphatic solvent. This works because the alkyl halide has some polarity, so become relatively concentrated within the polar branches of the dendrimer. This polar medium favours the formation of polar transition states and intermediates, and allows some free alkene to be formed. This, being nonpolar, is expelled from the polar region, and moves out of the dendrimer and into the non-polar solvent. This is a highly efficient process, and the elimination reaction can be driven to completion with only 0.01 % by mass of a dendrimer in the reaction mixture in the presence of an auxiliary base such as potassium carbonate. 

In macromolecular dmg delivery systems, dmgs are attached to polymeric compounds, such as synthetic polymers [60], dendrimers [61], and antibodies [62], in order to enhance the delivery of the active substance to the diseased tissue and to reduce the toxicity to healthy tissue. The use of macromolecular delivery systems provides several advantages extension of the half-life of the dmg, the ability to introduce targeting moieties into the carrier, the possibility of triggered dmg release, and the aforementioned reduced cytotoxicity. 

The interest in hyperbranched polymers arises from the fact that they combine some features of dendrimers, for example, an increasing number of end groups and a compact structure in solution, with the ease of preparation of hn-ear polymers by means of a one-pot reaction. However, the polydispersities are usually high and their structures are less regular than those of dendrimers. Another important advantage is the extension of the concept of hyperbranched polymers towards vinyl monomers and chain growth processes, which opens unexpected possibilities. 

The alkynyl-metal (metal-acetyhde) complex is one of the best building blocks for organometallic dendrimers, since it has some advantages compared to other organometallic complexes [18]. Most of the metal-acetylide complexes are thermally robust and stable, even when exposed to air and moisture. Metal-acetylide complexes are fairly accessible in high yields by well-established synthetic methodology [19]. These features are essential to the construction of dendrimers. 

Dendrimers 5-8 were obtained by taking advantage of the versatile regiose-lective reaction developed in the group of Diederich [24], which led to macro-cyclic bis-adducts of Cgg by a cyclization reaction at the C sphere with bis-mal-onate derivatives in a double Bingel cyclopropanation [25]. Reaction of the dendritic malonates with Cgg, I2, and l,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU) in toluene at room temperature afforded the corresponding cyclization products 5-8 (Fig. 2). The relative position of the two cyclopropane rings in 5-8 on the Cgo core was determined based on the molecular symmetry deduced from the and NMR spectra (Cs) as well as on their UV/Vis spectra. It is well estabhshed... 

It has been demonstrated that dendrimers can be used also as fluorescent sensors for metal ions. Poly(propylene amine) dendrimers functionalized with dansyl units at the periphery like 34 can coordinate metal ions by the aliphatic amine units contained in the interior of the dendrimer [80]. The advantage of a dendrimer for this kind of application is related to the fact that a single analyte can interact with a great number of fluorescent units, which results in signal amplification. For example, when a Co ion enters dendrimer 34, the fluorescence of all the 32 dansyl units is quenched with a 32-fold increase in sensitivity with respect to a normal dansyl sensor. This concept is illustrated in Fig. 3. 

Two practical advantages of luminescence species engulfed in antenna dendrimer scaffolds are apparent, namely their miscibility with organic media (solvents or/and resins) and their ability to form thin films. For example the lanthanide-cored dendrimer complexes described in this chapter can be regarded as organic-soluble inorganic luminescers. 

The present activity in the field reflects the unique capabilities available with dendrimers Basically the whole world of chemistry can be conceived as a dendritic molecule in the shape of almost any molecular building blocks of organic, inorganic or biochemical origin. Practically every chemist should be able to enter the field of dendrimer chemistry or take advantage of it for his specific needs. 

These methods allow the incorporation of charges either at each generation during the construction of the dendrimer or only on the surface taking advantage of the high reactivity of terminal groups. 

Finally, dendrimers have been synthesized using solid phase peptide synthesis resins, wherein the core is linked to the resin and the half-dendrimer (dendron) is built out from it in sequential steps (Marsh et al., 1996 Swali et al., 1997 Wells et al., 1998). The advantage of this method... 

Figure 7.16 The creation of a tumor-targeting dendrimer conjugate can take advantage of the multivalent character of the dendrimer polymer. This figure illustrates the attachment of five different groups to an amine-dendrimer to produce a chemotherapeutic construct.

Since the pioneering work on dendritic structures by Vogtle et al.,[28] dendrimers have attracted much attention. The synthesis and investigation of their structural properties became a new field in science. The application of dendrimers as support molecules for homogeneous catalysts was first reported by Van Koten et al. in 1994.[29] Dendrimers have the advantage of having perfect structures unlike polymeric structures and are... 

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