Introduction to Nanotechnology

302 ORGANIC COMPOUNDS AND POLYMERS
Er
Figure 11.19. Dendrimer catalyst (dendralyst) with an Si core, and terminal group aryC
nickel complexes as the catalytically active functional groups. [From J. W. J. Knapen,
A. W. van der Made, J. C. de Wilde, P. W. N. M. van Leeuwenn, P. Wijkens, D. M. Grove,
and G. van Koten, Nature 372, 659 (1994).]
11 53. Supramolecular Dendrimers
Individual dendritic compounds can be linked together to form larger structures
called supramolecular dendrimers, and this linking procedure can be carried out by a
process called supramolecular self-assembly. As an example consider the dendnmer
in the upper left corner of Fig. 1 1.20, in which the core consists of a central benzene
ring associated with a complicated aromatic, polycyclic complex attached above it,
plus two branched wedges shown bifurcated below it. To simplify the notation, this
dendrimer is presented in abbreviated form in the upper right corner with a
boldfaced triangle representing the complicated complex attached to the central
benzene ring. The lower part of the figure shows a supramolecular dendritic complex