Research on dendrimers has exploded in the last 15 years, moving from the establishment of synthetic methodologies, particularly in the early years up to the end of nineties, towards sophisticated and wide-ranging applications. Dendrimers play an important role in many different areas, spanning from basic synthetic approaches to artificial photosynthesis, to medicine, to catalysis. The great potential of dendrimers is well-recognized by the hundreds of papers in the field and the increasing number of patents, and stimulated developments in other areas of knowledge, including new characterization techniques. However, some basic principles and methods still continue to give a unity to the field. Although several books on dendrimers have been published during these 15 years, the very recent progresses in new areas now requires a new point of view, trying to give a unifying and comprehensive outlook of the field. Since the first dendrimer was synthesized by V gtle in 1978, dendrimers have experienced an explosion of scientific interest because of their unique molecular architecture. This resulted in over 5,000 scientific papers and patents published by the end of 2005. The proposed book will cover both fundamental and applicative aspects of dendrimer research. Chapters devoted to basic principles, synthetic methods and strategies, and advanced characterization techniques will be integrated by chapters illustrating the full potential of dendrimers in various fields, like artificial photosynthesis, multi-redox pool systems, diagnostics, biomedical and sensing purposes, design of functional nanostructures. Particular emphasis will be devoted to possible future developments.

Research on dendrimers has exploded in the last 15 years, moving from the establishment of synthetic methodologies, particularly in the early years up to the end of nineties, towards sophisticated and wide-ranging applications. Dendrimers play an important role in many different areas, spanning from basic synthetic approaches to artificial photosynthesis, to medicine, to catalysis. The great potential of dendrimers is well-recognized by the hundreds of papers in the field and the increasing number of patents, and stimulated developments in other areas of knowledge, including new characterization techniques. However, some basic principles and methods still continue to give a unity to the field. Although several books on dendrimers have been published during these 15 years, the very recent progresses in new areas now requires a new point of view, trying to give a unifying and comprehensive outlook of the field. Since the first dendrimer was synthesized by Vögtle in 1978, dendrimers have experienced an explosion of scientific interest because of their unique molecular architecture. This resulted in over 5,000 scientific papers and patents published by the end of 2005. The proposed book will cover both fundamental and applicative aspects of dendrimer research. Chapters devoted to basic principles, synthetic methods and strategies, and advanced characterization techniques will be integrated by chapters illustrating the full potential of dendrimers in various fields, like artificial photosynthesis, multi-redox pool systems, diagnostics, biomedical and sensing purposes, design of functional nanostructures. Particular emphasis will be devoted to possible future developments.

Preface viiList of Contributors xi1 Dendrimers as quantized nano-modules in the nanotechnologyfield 1Jørn B. Christensen and Donald A. Tomalia2 Novel methods for dendrimer synthesis 35Isao Washio and Mitsuru Ueda3 Designer monomers to tailored dendrimers 57George R. Newkome and Carol Shreiner4 Dendronized polymers: state of the art in Zurich 95Afang Zhang and A. Dieter SchlEURuter5 Shape persistent polyphenylene-based dendrimers 121Martin Baumgarten, Tianshi Qin, and Klaus MEURullen6 Dendrimer chemistry with fullerenes 161Jean-Franc¸ois Nierengarten7 Redox and fluorescent open core dendrimers 195Angel E. Kaifer8 Redox-active organometallic dendrimers as electrochemicalsensors 219Carmen M. Casado, Beatriz Alonso, Jose Losada, andMari´a Pilar Garci´a-Armada9 Shape-persistent conjugated dendrimers for organic electronics263Jing Yan, Fan Gao, Jian Pei, and Yuguo Ma10 Fine-controlled metal assembly in dendrimers 303Takane Imaoka and Kimihisa Yamamoto11 Enlightening structure and properties of dendrimers byfluorescence depolarization 341Giacomo Bergamini, Enrico Marchi, Paola Ceroni, and VincenzoBalzani12 Single-molecule spectroscopy of dendrimer systems 367Tom Vosch13 Degradable dendrimers 403Marc Gingras14 Porphyrin dendrimers as biological oxygen sensors 463Sergei A. Vinogradov and David F. Wilson15 Peptide dendrimers as artificial proteins 505Tamis Darbre and Jean-Louis Reymond16 Phosphorus-containing dendritic architectures: synthesis andapplications 529Anne-Marie Caminade and Jean-Pierre MajoralIndex 563