Talk:Dendrimer

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[edit] Density Profile

I notice that the Tomalia/deGennes-Hervet density profile (propaganda science depicting an entropic disaster - I guess it sells dendrimers, though) is still depicted in picture after picture. The reader would be well-served by reading experimental some of the folks in NIST (I forget who), Rubinstein, Mansfield, and some molecular dynamics simulations. You'll see a very different (and accurate) picture of what dendrimers REALLY look like in solution.

[edit] Denkwalter or Tomalia?

Because of the recent changes back and forth in representing either Denkwalter (referencing his 1983 patent) or Tomalia (referencing his 1979 work at Dow Chemical) as the originator of the Dendrimer, I thought it would be best to leave this point open to discussion. Please add your comments below. The topic of discussion is who first conceptualized the dendrimer and who first synthesized them. --Dirkbike 19:31, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

It seems that most of the edits removing Tomalia's name are done by someone from Dendritech (192.251.56.2 being www.denritech.com and 24.231.161.247 pointing to a residential address in Bay City, MI area where Dendritech is located). With simple Google search showing that Tomalia was in fact one of the founders of Dendritech so it appears to me that this has nothing to do with who invented dendrimers and we're simply dealing with either personal grudge or business dispute, or both. In either case, this is petty and pathetic. As far as who was the first - both should be included, let the people decide.

On a separate note there's a vast number of publications on dendrimers out there, and showcasing a particular one, even if it is in Nature is misleading, so that part may need to go.Gauche 20:01, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

The question of who first conceptualized something is often a matter of opinion and therefore should be avoided in encyclopedia articles like this one. What could be documented factographically, however, is who first published what, since there is material evidence for this that could be found through a thorough literature search. For dendrimers, the evidence is as follows. The first publication of a divergent or "cascade" synthesis was by Fritz Vogtle et al., Synthesis, 155, 1978. The first disclosures of dendrimers are in the patents by Robert Denkewalter et al., 4,289,872 (published 1981, filed 1979) and 4,410,688 (published 1983, filed 1981). The first relevant Dow patent is 4,507,466 (published 1985, filed 1983) and the first published papers on dendrimers in scientific journals were by G. R. Newkome et al., J. Org. Chem., 50, 2003, 1985 and D. A. Tomalia et al., Polymer J. (Tokyo) 17, 117, 1985. It is based on evidence like these that the priority should be awarded. On a separate note: DSM has withdrawn from the dendrimer production in 2003.

• please sign your comments with 4 tildes ~ in a row thanks. I have included the references you provided, when people disagree please give your references with DOI or link to patent in the article. Lets try to focus on actual providing content? Readers interested in dendrimers are first of all interested in what they are not who invented them V8rik 20:52, 22 September 2006 (UTC).