Dendrizymes: Expanded ligands for enantioselective catalysis

Dendrizymes are a new class of expanded ligands, designed for enantioselective catalysis with transition metal complexes. These expanded ligands consist of a strongly binding chelate core, which is surrounded by space-filling dendrimer substituents, built-up by branching units and optically active groups. In a complex of such a dendrimer ligand a reaction is supposed to take place in the same way as in the pocket of an enzyme.