Dendrimers at surfaces and interfaces: chemistry and applications

The highly compact and globular shape, as well as the uniform size and plurifunctionality of dendrimers make them ideal molecular building blocks for a wide range of interfacial materials involving self-assembled monolayers, Langmuir films, multilayers, and other surface-confined assemblies. Moreover, the study of the behavior of dendrimers at surfaces and interfaces provides unique insight into their chemical and physical properties. Dendritic macromolecules play an increasingly important role in the materials and surface sciences, where applications utilizing polymer thin films can benefit from their distinctive chemical and physical properties. Recent investigations have highlighted the use of dendrimers as functional surfaces and as interfacial materials for applications in membranes, adhesion, microelectronics or in chemical and biological sensing.