Metal complex as core unit

There are basically two routes available for the preparation of dendrimers with a metal complex as core unit. One of these approaches starts from a preconstructed metal complex, whose ligand framework is covalently substituted with dendritic groups. Aida [31], Diederich [32], and Kaifer [33] were among those to use this strategy. 

In a second variant, growth of metallodendrimers can proceed via complexa-tion of a metal cation with dendritic ligands. In this way, Balzani, Vogtle, De Cola et al. [34] obtained photoactive ruthenium complexes by spontaneous self-assembly of the components starting from various dendritically substituted bi-pyridines. Fig. 2.9 shows a representative example (see Sections 5.1.2.3 and 

An in-depth consideration of the product variety offered by this strategy will be found in Section 4.1.11 (metallodendrimers) and in the pertinent literature [31, 32, 35], 

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