A fast track strategy toward highly functionalized dendrimers with different structural layers: an onion peel approach

An accelerated strategy depending on different chemical building blocks between each layer, coined onion peel, was used to construct a library of third generation dendrimers with 108, 180 and 252 hydroxyl surface groups using a combination of microwave assisted highly efficient CuAAC and thiol-ene reactions. These dendrimers were conveniently acquired with high purity and good yields in a divergent manner using a variety of orthogonal and dense AB(3), AB(5), and AB(7) building blocks. The resulting poly-hydroxylated dendrimers tested in several human cell types did not impair mitochondrial metabolic function or cell viability suggesting that they are good candidates for applications in biological investigations.