Dendrimers as scaffolds for the synthesis of spherical porphyrin arrays.

This communication describes a self assembled porphyrin sphere. The globular macromolecular assembly contains 12 terminal porphyrins and has a molecular mass in excess of 15,000 g mol-1.

Formation of A2B2 supramolecular porphyrin co-polymers.

New supramolecular A2B2 co-polymers formed in solution from a rigid diporphyrin monomer (the A2 unit) and a short flexible dipyridine monomer (the B2 unit) are reported; NMR experiments show that complete binding occurs at mM concentrations; UV titrations reveal that the dipyridine unit and a monomeric control ligand have identical binding constants, confirming that linear polymers were generated (in preference to small cyclic oligomers); at 2 x 10(-2) M polymers with an average molecular weight of 17,100 g mol-1 and containing approximately 14 porphyrin units have formed.

Catalysis inside dendrimers.

Catalytic sites can be placed at the core, at interior positions or at the periphery of a dendrimer. There are many examples of the use of peripherally functionalized dendrimers in catalysis and this subject has been thoroughly reviewed in the recent literature. This review is concerned only with dendrimer based catalysis involving catalytic sites at the core of a dendrimer and within the interior voids.