molecules are rapidly expanding for fundamental research as
well as for technological applications( 2 ).
Dendrimers are ideal scaffolds to organize many luminescent
units in a restricted space according to a predetermined pattern.
Because of their proximity, the various functional groups of a
dendrimer can easily give rise to energy- and electron-transfer
processes with one another, or with molecules or ions hosted in
the dendritic cavities or associated to the dendrimer surface( 3 ).
Combination of the chemistry of metal ions with the chemistry
of dendrimers can lead to a great variety of novel compounds.
In this chapter, we will deal with six exemplifying cases (Fig. 2)
belonging to three classes of compounds, namely,
FIG. 2. Schematic representation of the six cases of metal complexes
with dendritic ligands: dendrimers containing one (a) or more (b) metal
complexes (hexagons) as branching centers; dendrimers capable of
coordinating one (c) or multiple (d) metal ions (circles); dendrimers
assembled around metal ions without (e) or with (f) other ligands (LāL).
PHOTOCHEMISTRY & PHOTOPHYSICS OF METAL COMPLEXES 107