Photochemistry and photophysics of metal complexes with dendritic ligands

Combinations of suitably chosen metal ions and dendritic ligands may lead to giant metal complexes that display interesting spectroscopic properties, particularly as far as luminescence is concerned. This paper illustrates some fundamental aspects of the interaction of light with dendrimers and then reviews results obtained with dendrimers (i) containing one or more metal complexes as branching centers or as a core, (ii) capable of coordinating one or more metal ions in their cavities, (iii) assembled around metal ions without or with other ligands. The study of the luminescent properties reveals that these compounds can be useful for several purposes, including light harvesting, sensing with signal amplification, conversion of the absorbed light into emitted light of quite different wavelength (e.g, UV light into IR light), and information processing.