Dendrimers as an Efficient Catalyst for the Oxidation of Multi Substituted Alcohols

Ideally, dendrimers are perfect mono disperse macromolecules with a regular and highly branched three-dimensional architecture. Dendrimers are produced in an iterative sequence of reaction steps, in which each additional interaction leads to a higher generation material. The first example of an iterative synthetic procedure towardwell-defined branched structures has been reported by Vogtle,who named thisprocedure a “cascade synthesis”. A few years later, in the early 1980s, Denke walter 2-During the early years, the area blossomed and dendrimers based on a variety of repeat units appeared: these included amides, amines, carbo silanes, siloxanes, esters, ethers, phenyl acetylenes, various organometallics, amino acids and even nucleic acid based dendrimers.

In addition, secondary function was also incorporated into these systems. These included porphyrins, phthalocyanines, saccharides, mesogens, anionic and cationic groups and various chromophores. Over the next few years more and more applied systems began to be developed and this area ofapplied research is now one of the most vibrant areas of dendrimer chemistry. Examples of such applications are many and diverse: they include encapsulation and solubilisation,medicinal and bio mimetic applications,novel materials, and catalysis.