Phosphorus dendrimers possessing metallic groups in their internal structure (core or branches): Syntheses and properties

This review concerns metallic groups linked to the internal structure (core or branches) of phosphorus-containing dendrimers that are dendrimers possessing one phosphorus at each branching point. The synthetic aspect will be described first, ranked depending on the precise location of the metal: either at the core, or throughout the structure, or at one or several specific layers (layer-block type dendrimers), or in selected branches (segment-block type dendrimers). The second part concerns the properties of these metallo-phosphorus dendrimers, with emphasis on the information afforded by the metallic centers about the internal structure, and on the influence of the "burying" of a function inside a dendrimer on the properties of this function. The last part concerns the applications of some of these metallodendrimers in catalysis. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.