Metallodendrimers composed of organometallic building blocks.

The incorporation of metallic species into dendritic molecules has been attracting much attention, because the addition of properties characteristic of metallic complexes, such as magnetic, electronic, and photo-optical properties, as well as reactivity, may lead to the realization of new functionalized dendrimers. Organometallic dendrimers offer several advantages in the design of a dendritic molecule with the desired functions due to the diversity of the structure and properties of the organometallic complexes. In the past, the focus was on organometallic dendrimers with metallic species only at specific positions of the molecules, such as the core and the periphery. In this chapter, we summarize recent developments in the synthesis of organometallic dendrimers, in which organometallic species act as building block in every generation. Such dendrimers are generated by successive reactions characteristic of organometallic complexes, and some of them show interesting properties.