Nanofabrication is the design and manufacture of devices with dimensions measured in nanometers. In the top-down approach to nanofabrication, smaller and smaller structures are prepared by miniaturization. In the bottom-up approach, structures and devices are prepared by assembly of Nature's smallest building blocks, i.e. molecules.

Dendrimers are particularly useful building blocks for bottom-up nanofabrication because they combine nanoscale dimensions with precisely defined molecular structure. They can be prepared in a range of sizes and functionalised at their numerous peripheral end groups, in their core and along their branches. 

Metallodendrimers are dendrimers that contain metals which can be bound in coordination complexes at the end groups as well as in the core or along the branches of dendrimers. The metals can even be encapsulated as metal nanoparticles inside the dendrimers.

Dendrimer encapsulated Au particles

In his Dalton Transactions Frontier, Professor Bart Ravoo from the University of Münster, Germany, highlights the potential of metallodendrimers for nanofabrication and possible applications of the resulting devices, such as nanocatalysts and solar cells. 

'Ultimately, nanofabrication with these versatile building blocks will give rise to electronic and optical devices in which the structural design at nanoscale dimensions leads to superior performance and new properties', says Ravoo.