Synthesis and catalytic applications of dendrimer-templated bimetallic nanoparticles

Dendrimers, well-defined hyper-branched macromolecules with characteristic globular structure, have emerged as an attractive material in the field of catalysis and have been considered as a new type of host for the accommodation of guest molecules by virtue of their three-dimensional structure having interior void space. In line with the prospect of dendrimer as a nanoreactor, various metal nanoparticles have been successfully prepared via encapsulation in or formation of particles surrounded by dendrimer branches. However, it is worth noting that most of the previous studies have been confined to the "monometallic'' nanoparticles, and "bimetallic'' nanoparticles have been scarcely exploited yet. In this article, we present the synthesis and characterization of dendrimer-templated bimetallic nanoparticles and their application to catalysis.