Dendritic Polymers

Dendritic polymers are belonging to a special class of macromolecules. They are called "Dendrimers." Similar to linear polymers, they composed of a large number of monomer units that were chemically linked together. Due to their unique physical and chemical properties, dendrimers have wide ranges of potential applications. These include adhesives and coatings , chemical sensors , medical diagnostics , drug-delivery systems ,high performance polymers , catalysts , building blocks of supermolecules , separation agents and many more .

The name dendrimer is derived from Greek words Dendron meaning  "tree" and meros meaning "part." A major difference between linear polymers and dendrimers is that a linear polymer consists of long chains of molecules, like coils, crisscrossing each other. A dendrimer consists of molecular chains that branched out from a common center, and there is no entanglement between each dendrimer molecules (Fig. 5)

A novel way of synthesis of dendrites was achieved by using flash cationic polymerization , rheology, electrochemical synthesis of polymethylsilane dendrimers, honeycomb-shaped polyurethane films from dendritic sidechain polymers having reactive pendent units . These polymers provide a very good alternative to naturally occurring biological assesmblies for targeted drug delivery . Its use in nanomedicine was proposed by two scientists . Apart from targeted drug delivery, we can review the versatility of these dendritic polymers in the field of supercapacitors, thickening agent , spectrochemical applications, solar cells , ion-exchange chromatography and LEDs  etc. Their use in gene therapy and gene delivery was very recently reviewed . But their use as electrochemical sensors is still under discovery.