Phosphine-functionalized dendrimers for transition-metal catalysis

Dendrimers are well-defined hyperbranched macromolecules with characteristic globular structures for the larger systems, of which their use has been explored for various applications including catalysis. Dendritic catalysts potentially combine the advantages of both homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis since the soluble dendritic catalyst can be separated from the product-stream by nano-filtration. In addition, dendritic effects on transition-metal catalysis can be expected, depending on the position of the catalytic site(s) as well as the spatial separation of the catalysts within the dendritic framework. We have prepared both core- and periphery-functionalized dendritic catalysts that are sufficiently large to enable separation by nano-filtration techniques. Here we review our findings using these promising novel transition metal-functionalized dendrimers as catalysts in several reactions. (C) 2003 Academie des sciences. Published by Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.