Advances in Applications of Dendritic Compounds

Dendritic compounds (so-called dendrimers) with nano-scale represent unique symmetric and spherical structures. They are usually prepared through two fundamental methods based on molecular level which involved the convergent method and divergent method, although the synthetic methods have a tendency towards the diversity and functionalization. The outershell of dendrimers with rich peripheral reactive sites are easily modified by small functional molecules. Moreover, the higher generation dendrimers also possess more exposed functional groups on the surface prior to the previous one and they are much easily customized for much more applications. Consequently, based on previous researches, this review summarized wide applications of dendritic compounds in many fields which were investigated in detail, including gene vector, drug carrier, catalysis, sensor industry, photoelectric material, etc. Dendrimers provide promising tools for the cellular delivery of molecular cargos ranging in size from small molecules and peptides to proteins and DNA. More importantly, it is necessary to explore new synthetic methods and undiscovered applications of new dendrimers.