(62c) Synthesis of Dendrimers Using Continuous Flow Microreactors

Dendrimers are nanoscale macromolecules that have highly branched, core-shell structures. Higher generation dendrimers have close-packed peripheral functional groups and a hollow interior. This unique feature provides dendrimers with the capacity to serve as hosts to encapsulate guests in the interior and to conjugate molecules on the surface. They have shown great potential for a wide variety of applications including catalysis, sensors, drug delivery and light harvesting. They are synthesized in a stepwise manner to higher generations using a number of chemical reactions. The chemistry of the core and the terminal functionalities can be tailored according to the specific application. Dendrimers have tremendous potential, but carrying out the synthesis in a conventional reactor is time-consuming. In this work, we will report our recent progress in performing both convergent and divergent synthesis of dendrimers and dendrons using continuous flow microreactors. The short pathway and high surface to volume ratio features of microreactor improve reactions tremendously due to fast mass and heat transfer. In comparison with conventional batch process, microreactor demonstrates several advantages; especially the reaction time can be reduced to seconds (in conventional synthesis it usually takes hours or several days). Microreactor-based synthesis appears to be a promising approach for dendrimer synthesis and production.