Dendritic Materials Systems

Abstract : The research activities of our MURI focused on the use of dendritic polymers in materials applications. The research concentrated in four main areas: hulk properties, devices, advances in computational methods for modeling and simulation of dendrimers, and chemical properties. The area of hulk properties addressed issues relating to fundamental and technological aspects of dendrimers for their intrinsic properties or ability to modify other materials in mass quantity. Examples of research in this area included the search for new high performance hyperbranched polymers, novel approaches to control macromolecular architecture, and the study of blends of dendritic materials with commodity polymers to facilitate processing and enhance the performance of traditional polymeric materials. The area of devices focused on using dendritic materials as active components in sensors. Augmenting all of the research was the development of new computational methods for simulating dendritic materials. The team combined strengths in synthesis, molecular modeling and computation, and characterization to capitalize on the materials opportunities offered by this unusual family of polymers. Finally, the area of chemical properties addressed dendrimers in applications that involved molecular recognition and catalysis.