Tailoring dendronized polymers

Dendrimers are branched or hyperbranched synthetic oligomers or macromolecules with their size, molar masses, number of end groups and delicate compositions being precisely controlled. These characteristics have made dendrimers very good candidates as scaffolds of spherical molecules whose size ranges from several to tens of nanometres. When the dendritic segments are densely grafted along a linear polymer, so-called dendronized polymers or denpols are obtained. Owing to the steric hindrance between neighboring dendrons, especially in high generation, the dendronized polymers show a wormlike morphology whose flexibility and diameter are mainly dependent upon the generation of grafted dendrons. Therefore, denpols may be regarded as one-dimensional molecular nanoobjects. In this article, the recent development of a remarkable synthesis, control of composition and morphologies are featured. Densely grafting many dendrons along a linear polymer has produced dendronized polymers which are one-dimensional molecular nanoobjects. In this feature article, the recent development of a remarkable synthesis, control of composition and morphologies are highlighted.