Ferrocenyl-terminated dendrimers: Design for applications in molecular electronics, molecular recognition and catalysis

This micro-review shows how a simple but powerful organometallic C-H activation could be made very useful for the construction of a large variety of stars, dendritic cores, dendrons and dendrimers of variable sizes including giant dendrimers and gold-nanoparticle-cored dendrimers. The synthesis of ferrocenyl-terminated dendrimers was then achieved by reactions of chlorocarbonylferrocene with polyamino dendrimers, ferrocenylsilylation of polyolefin dendrons and dendrimers and click reactions of ferrocenyl acetylene with azido-terminated dendrimers. The functions of these metallodendrimers include molecular electronics (molecular batteries), molecular redox recognition and sensing and catalysis using dendritic stabilization of nanoparticle catalysts.