Braga-Portugal MOLECULAR DYNAMICS SIMULATIONS OF PORPHYRIN-DENDRIMER SYSTEMS: TOWARDS MODELLING ELECTRON-TRANSFER IN SOLUTION

Organic dendrimers are highly regular and branched polymers that assume a globular shape in solution with dimensions of some nanometers. Since its discovery more than two decades ago, dendrimers have become a very important building block in supramolecular chemistry and nanoscience. The set of potential applications for these molecules encompass a variety of areas, namely, biology (as mimetic systems of enzymes or redox proteins), medicine (in drug delivery, gene therapy and biochemical sensors) and optoelectronics (for transduction of signals or light-harvesting devices).