Internal/external use of dendrimer in catalysis

Dendrimers, well-defined hyper-branched macromolecules with characteristic globular structures, have inspired chemists and chemical engineers to develop new materials and several applications have been explored. The dendritic molecule has emerged as an attractive material in the field of catalysis and various dendrimer catalysts have been applied not only to catalytic reactions but also to non-catalytic ones such as nanoscale reactor systems. This article presents a review of research work on the dendrimer-based catalysis involving the rational design of homogeneous or heterogeneous chiral dendrimer catalysts for enantioselective reactions and the synthesis of catalytically active bimetallic nanoparticles in the presence of dendrimer as a template.