ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the characterization of phosphorus dendrimers which have been applied also for the characterization of other types of dendrimers. It shows that the use of spectrometry and spectroscopy, then microscopy, and physical characterizations. Nuclear magnetic resonance is the most widely used technique in routine analysis for characterizing dendrimers, but special NMR techniques have also been used to probe their size and morphology. Mass spectrometry techniques developed for the characterization of high molecular weight compounds such as polymers and proteins are also potentially usable for the characterization of dendrimers. Phosphorus dendrimers, several first-generation dendrimers were characterized by X-ray diffraction. The role of infrared spectroscopy for the characterization of dendrimers is mainly limited to the routine analyses of the transformations occurring on the surface of dendrimers. When chromophoric units constitute the terminal groups of dendrimers, their increasing number when the generation of the dendrimer increases generally induces an increase in the absorption intensity, which obeys the Beer-Lambert law.
