Abstract

Dendrimers: Synthesis to applications: A review

Author(s): Dhaval G.Gajjar, Rinkesh M.Patel, Pravinkumar M.Patel

Dendrimers are new class of polymers, first invented in 1978 by Vogtle. Unlike linear polymers, dendrimers have special properties such as nanometer size range, narrowpolydispersity, high degree of branching and presence of internal cavities which allows them to be used in many applications. Dendrimers can be mainly synthesized by either divergent or convergent routes. Recent advances lead to different routes for dendrimer synthesis which gives control over molecular architecture and allows incorporation of different functionalities in dendritic architecture. As a result new types of dendrimers with different functionalities have been synthesized. Unique properties of dendrimers have attracted attention of several researchers frominterdisciplinary fields. This led to applications of dendrimers in various applications for e.g. various routes of drug delivery, gene therapy, cancer therapy, catalysis and in membrane technology. This review covers approaches for dendrimer synthesis, and their potential applications such as drug delivery, gene delivery, cancer therapy, catalysis and in membrane technology.