Their construction is based on controlled and sequential reiterative synthetic elementary steps which are reproduced at each new generation (convergent or divergent sequential construction): at each new cycle, the molecule is incremented by an additional generation or shell.
These compartmentalized and hierarchical artificial supermolecules possess a regular (monodisperse) and controlled three-dimensional branched topology, the result of sophisticated genealogical directed syntheses. Dendrimers and dendrons (or elementary dendritic units) may be considered as polymers with geometrically-restricted structures.
The elaboration and the synthesis of such aesthetically-challenging architectures have been driven by the need to mimic the macroscopic natural branching networks and to convey their functions at the molecular level. Such a natural hyperbranched architecture has reached an unrivalled level of perfection and provides maximum interfaces for efficient contacts and interactions, as well as for optimum information collection, transport and distribution.
The arborescent dendritic structure is one of the most pervasive, prolific, and influential natural pattern that can be observed on earth, at all dimension length scales (from nm to km), at once in the inert, the virus and the living worlds.
