Inverted unimolecular dendritic micelles

It is also of interest to study the self-assembly of these inverted unimolecular dendritic micelles into vesicles in water at pH = 1 and at the air-water interface. In these vesicles, the dendrimers adopt a distorted conformation, far from spherical. These dendritic amphiphiles form a novel class of vesicle-forming surfactants [71] and introduce new perspectives towards a better understanding of the structure-property relation of amphiphiles on the one hand and dendrimers on the other hand. 

Figure 23 Schematic representation of the vesicle formation of the fifth generation inverted unimolecular dendritic micelles...

Stevelmans S, vanHest JCM, Jansen J et al (1996) Synthesis, cheu cterization, and guest-host properties of inverted unimolecular dendritic micelles. J Am Chem Soc 118 7398-7399... 

Recently, we are also able to perform liquid-liquid extractions of water-soluble dyes from water to organic solvents like toluene using the unimolecular dendritic micelles as extractants. These guest-host properties of the modified poly(propylene imine) dendrimers make use of the basic nature of the interior of the dendrimer. Therefore, it is possible to transfer dyes like Bengal Rose into toluene. Although simple tri-octylamines are capable of transferring these dyes as well, it is evident from the experiments that unimolecular dendritic inverted micelles are much more selective, probably due to the shielding effect of the apolar shell [70]. 

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