Dendrimer disassembly as a new paradigm for the application of dendritic structures.

We present an overview of an entirely new concept in nanotechnology, dendrimer disassembly. Dendrimer disassembly is a process that relies on a single triggering event to initiate multiple cleavages throughout a dendritic structure that result in release of individual dendrimer subunits or larger dendrimer fragments. The potential of this process lies in (1) the nature of dendrimers as covalent assemblages of active species, and using the chemistry of disassembly to release these species into a system; and (2) the role of dendritic components of a system in influencing solubility, energy harvesting, or insulating capabilities, etc., and using the chemistry of disassembly to reverse those contributions to a system. This is a powerful construct, in that dendrimers and dendritic structures can be made up of a wide variety of subunits, compatibilized with many different environments, and incorporated into countless systems. We anticipate that dendritic materials with disassembly capabilities will (a) be useful for traditional polymer degradation technologies and (b) have potential applications in nanotechnology, biomedicine, sensors, etc.