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Dendronized polymers are linear polymers to every repeat unit of which dendrons are attached. Dendrons are regularly branched, tree-like fragments and for larger ones the polymer backbone is wrapped to give sausage-like, cylindrical molecular objects. Figure 1 shows a cartoon representation with the backbone in red and the dendrons like cake slices in green. It also provides a concrete chemical structure showing a polymethylmethacrylate backbone, the methyl group of which is replaced by a dendron of the third generation.
Figure 1. Cartoon representation and a concrete example of a third generation dendronized polymer. The peripheral amine groups are modified by a substituent X which often is a protection group. Upon deprotection and modification substantial property changes can be achieved. The subscript n denotes the number of repeat units.