Dendritic Polymers Designed for Photo-Driven Applications

Inspired by nature as well as by their imagination, material scientists design photoactive materials to facilitate work through the use of light. Dendritic polymers are an attractive scaffold for the design of these materials, given their unique 3D topology as well as other inherent properties such as solubility that allows easy processability. Through rational synthetic designs, chromophores and/or luminophores have been precisely built into dendritic polymeric frameworks to afford material precursors for photo-driven applications. These photoactive dendritic polymers are proposed for use in a wide range of applications that includes catalysis, photonics, electronics, and biomedicine. Here, we briefly examine these polymers to highlight their photophysical and photochemical properties that are useful in fundamental studies and practical applications.