Abstract

The series Advances in Dendritic Macromolecules aims to cover the synthesis and supramolecular chemistry of dendritic or cascade super-molecules as well as their less perfect hyperbranched cousins.
This volume demonstrates the novel and varied growth in this topic and certainly pushes the supramolecular concepts of Lehn into the budding "supramacro-molecular" frontier.
In Chapter 1, Villavicenio and McGrath present their pivotal work in the creation of azobenzene-containing dendrimers; their Chapter describes the fundamental underpinnings to this interesting family. As they state in their summation, "A continuing combination of fundamental studies on the photomodulation of dendrimer properties in azobenzene-containing dendrimers and the new developments in the application of these materials to new and existing technologies is anticipated." The field of linear - dendritic block copolymers is summarized in
Chapter 2 from the eyes of Ivan Gitsov, who along with Professor Fréchet were the initiators of this variety of macromolecules.
In Chapter 3, Astruc and colleagues present the recent advances in metallodendrimers, which incorporate ferrocenyl and/or other transition metal sandwich components; their Chapter capitalizes on the importance of supramolecular chemistry in these dendritic constructs.
Finally, in Chapter 4, Wiener and Narayanan describe the practical applications of dendrimers to the area of magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents. Each of these unique chapters covers a different perspective of this versatile group of macromolecules.
H.W. Gibson
'This volume is part of an ongoing series that aims to summarise advances in the field of dendrimers, an area of importance both fundamentally and from the perspective of its applications. The book succeeds admirably in reviewing four aspects of this broadening field and generally provides references through the year 2000, with a few more from 2001...Overall this volume is a necessary acquisition for up-to-date science libraries and a very useful information source for those interested in dendrimer syntheses, properties and applications'.
Journal of the American Chemical Society