From Dendrimers to Megamers: The State-of-the-Art

Dendrimers comprise a unique type of macromolecules that are interesting from the viewpoint of both unusual architectures and the enormous application potential in high-tech fields such as nanotechnologies and nanomedicine. The only obstacle in the practical implementation of these molecules is their complicated synthesis and isolation. Therefore, the development of simple synthetic approaches to dendrimers and their derivatives is an urgent challenge that pertains to one of the most important fields of modern science, namely, the creation of nanomaterials. This review highlights the development of the methods for production and functionalization of dendrimers with a view to investigate their physico-chemical properties and outline the most promising trends such as megamers based on dendrimers. The synthesis and exploration of these molecular systems seem to be the most logical application field of dendrimers in terms of the development of our concepts about the regular polymer systems based on the principles of molecular construction.