Dendritic Polymers and Other Novel Polymeric Structures

5 DENDRITIC POLYMERS AND OTHER NOVEL POLYMERIC STRUCTURES 

Classically polymers may be linear, cross-linked, block or graft copolymers, and so on, as delineated throughout this text. However, there are a host of novel structures now synthesized, with some beginning to play important roles in polymer science and engineering. Many fall under the category called selfassembling polymers. 

The catenanes resemble a series of chain links. Each Unk is bound to its neighbors by physical forces only. Since each one of the links constitutes a separate molecule in the chemical sense, the links also bear some of the features of sell-assembly (32,33). 

During the synthesis of dendrimers, each successive reaction step leads to an additional generation, G, of branching (36). Sometimes the generations are 

Besides spherical shapes, dendrimers can also be self-assembled into cylindrical shapes, using tapered monodendrons (39). These materials emulate the protein coats surrounding the nucleic acid in viruses. 

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