Polysilane Dendrimers

The synthesis, structure and electronic properties of polysilane dendrimers, a relatively new class of highly branched and silicon-rich molecular architectures is reviewed. After a detailed discussion of main synthetic strategies to well-defined single-core and double-core polysilane dendrimers, important structural and conformational features determined by single crystal X-ray crystallography and Si-29-NMR spectroscopy are presented. The last part highlights the most interesting photochemical properties of polysilane dendrimers such as UV absorption and emission behavior, which are compared with those of linear and branched polysilanes.