a scholarly article from dnanotech
Dendrimers are repeatedly branched molecules. The huge number of papers on dendritic architectures such as dendrimers, dendronized, hyperbranched and brush-polymers has generated a vast variety of inconsistent terms and definitions making a clear and concise unfolding of this topic highly difficult. The purpose of this section is to provide the vocabulary required for the description of chemical and physical phenomena as well as application aspects associated with the research in the area of dendritic molecules.
Dendritic molecules are repeatedly branched species that are characterised by structural perfection. This is based on the evaluation of both symmetry and polydispersity. The field of dendritic molecules can roughly be divided into low-molecular weight and high-molecular weight species. The first category includes dendrimers and dendrons, and the second includes dendronised polymers, hyperbranched polymers and brush-polymers (called also bottle-brushes).
Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendrimer
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