Supramolecular Dendritic Catalysis: Noncovalent Catalyst Anchoring to Functionalized Dendrimers

The development of catalytic systems that provide rapid and selective chemical transformations and can be completely separated form the product is still a major challenge. Dendrimers can be used as well-defined nanosized supports for the immobilization of homogeneous catalysts leading to homogeneous catalysts that can be easily removed from the reaction mixture by nanofiltration. So far most effort has been put into the covalent functionalization of dendritic structures with catalytic sites. A recent novel strategy in this research area comprises the noncovalent anchoring of catalysts to support applying well-defined binding sites, offering several advantages above the traditional covalent approaches. In this chapter we will discuss the supramolecular approach in detail and we will highlight the progress in the area of supramolecular dendritic catalysis.