What is a dendrimer in nanotechnology?
Abstract. Dendrimers represent a class of novel polymers having unique molecular architectures characterized by their well-defined structure, with a high degree of molecular uniformity, low polydispersity and properties that make them attractive materials for the development of nanomedicines.
What is dendrimer polymer?
Dendrimers are highly ordered, branched polymeric molecules. Synonymous terms for dendrimer include arborols and cascade molecules. Typically, dendrimers are symmetric about the core, and often adopt a spherical three-dimensional morphology. The word dendron is also encountered frequently.
How big is a dendrimer?
Dendrimers are monodispersed spheroid or globular macromolecular structures with repeated branches [89,132]. They form very uniform and monodispersed nanostructures with sizes from 1 nm up to 10 nm [90,132].
What are dendrimers chemistry?
Dendrimers are highly defined artificial macromolecules, which are characterized by a combination of a high number of functional groups and a compact molecular structure. A rapid increase of importance in the chemistry of dendrimers has been observed since the first dendrimers were prepared.
What are the different methods of dendrimer synthesis?
There are two defined methods of dendrimer synthesis, divergent synthesis and convergent synthesis. However, because the actual reactions consist of many steps needed to protect the active site, it is difficult to synthesize dendrimers using either method.
What is dendrimer chemistry?
Dendrimer chemistry may be viewed as an overlap between polymer chemistry and traditional synthetic organic chemistry. By way of synthesis, dendrimer chemistry resembles synthetic organic chemistry; however, it still resembles polymer chemistry in the way that the whole structure is formed from repetition of monomers.
Why are phenol-terminated dendrimers synthesized?
Carboxylic acid and phenol-terminated water-soluble dendrimers were synthesized to establish their utility in drug delivery as well as conducting chemical reactions in their interiors.
When was the Newkome dendrimer synthesized?
One of the first dendrimers, the Newkome dendrimer, was synthesized in 1985. This macromolecule is also commonly known by the name arborol. The figure outlines the mechanism of the first two generations of arborol through a divergent route (discussed below).