Dendritic catalysis:: Major concepts and recent progress

Metallodendrimers are now a mature area of nanosciences with multiple potential applications [G.R. Newkome, C.N. Moorefield, F. Vogtle, Dendrons and dendrimers, in: Concepts, Synthesis and Applications, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2001; D. Tomalia, J.M.J. Frechet (Eds.), Dendrimers and other Dendritic Polymers, Wiley-VCH, New York, 2002; D. Astruc (Guest Ed.), C. R. Chimie 6 (2003) 709]. Among them, catalysis stands as a major objective given the need to design environmentally safe processes [P.T. Anastas, T.C. Williamson (Eds.), Green Chemistry ACS Symp. Ser. 626, ACS. Washington DC, 1996]. with regeneratable catalysts. Indeed, dendritic catalysts are nanosized, and as such they are, as biomolecules, easily isolable from homogeneous reaction media by precipitation, filtration, ultrafiltration or ultracentrifugation [D. Astruc (Guest Ed.), C. R. Chimie. 6 (2003) 709; D. Astruc, F. Chardac, Chem. Rev. 101 (2001) 2991; G.E. Oosterom, J.N.H. Reek, P.C.J. Kamer, P.W.N.M. van Leeuwen, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 40 (2001) 1828; R. van Heerbeeck, P.C.J. Kamer, P.W.N.M. van Leuwen, J.N.H. Reek, Chem. Rev. 102 (2002) 3717; R. Kreiter, A.W. Kleij, R.J.M. Klein Gebbink, G. van Koten, in: F. Vogtle, C. Schalley (Eds.), Dendrimers, IV: Metal Coordination, Self-assembly, Catalysis, vol. 217, Springer Verlag, Berlin, 2001, p. 163]. The idea of using metallodendritic was first raised by van Leeuwen in 1992 [R.A. Kleij, P.W.N.M. van Leeuwen, A.W. van der Made; EP0456317, 1991 [Chem. Abstr. 116 (1992) 129870], and the first example of recycling dendritic catalysts was reported by Reetz in 1997 [M.T. Reetz, G. Lohmer, R. Schwickardi, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 36 1997) 1526]. Since the first reviews on the subject that appeared in 2001, several other more or less related reviews were reported [J.N.H. Reek, D. de Groot, G.E. Oosterom, P.C.J. Kamer, P.W.N.M. van Leeuwen, Rev. Mol. Biotechnol. 90 (2002) 159; M. Dasgupta, M.B. Peori, A.K. Kakkar, Coord. Chem. Rev. 233-234 (2002) 223; S. Hecht, J.M.J. Frechet, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 40 (2001) 74; J.M.J. Frechet, J. Polym. Sci.: Part A: Polym. Chem. 41 (2003) 3713; P.A. Chase, R.J.M. Klein Gebbink, G. van Koten, J. Organometal. Chem. 689 (2004) 4016; C. Liang, J.M.J. Frechet, Prog. Polym. Sci. 30 (2005) 385. R. van de Coevering, R.J.M. Klein Gebbink, G. van Koten, Prog. Polym. Sci. 30 (2005) 474; A. Dahan, M. Portnoy, J. Polym. Sci.: Part A: Polym. Chem. 43 (2005) 235; D. Astruc, K. Heuze, S. Gatard, D. Mery, S. Nlate, L. Plault; Adv. Synth. Catal. 347 (2005) 2005; D. Astruc, C. R. Chimie 8 (2005) 1101] and dendritic catalysis was the subject of a multi-chapter section of the special triple issue of C.R. Chimie in 2003 [Y. Niu, R.M. Crooks, J.N.H. Reek, D. de Groot, G. E. Oosterom, P. J. Kamer, P. W. N. M. van Leeuwen, G. P. M. van Klink, H. P. Dijktra, G. van Koten, Y. Ribourdouille, G.D. Engel, L.H. Gade, K. Soai, I. Sato, C.-M. Che, J.-S. Huang, J.-L. Zhang, D. Astruc, J.-C. Blais, M.-C. Daniel, S. Gatard, S. Nlate, J. Ruiz, in: D. Astruc (Guest Ed.), C. R. Chimie 6-8 (2003) 1049]. The purpose of the present review is to summarize the major concepts and recent advances in the field. For extensive references older than 2001, the reader is referred to our comprehensive Chem. Rev. article [D. Astruc, F. Chardac, Chem. Rev. 101 (2001) 2991]. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.