Electrostatic Supramolecular Assembly of Charged Dendritic Polymers and Their Biological Application Dissertation zur Erlangung des Grades „Doktor der Naturwissenschaften“ am Fachbereich Chemie, Pharmazie und Geowissenschaften der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz Yaming Yu geb. in Liaoning, V. R. China Mainz, 2010 Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 29, Mar. 2010 Contents Chapter 1 General Introduction ·································································· 1 Chapter 2 Fundamentals ············································································· 6 2.1 Dendritic Architectures······································································· 6 2.1.1 Dendrimers··············································································· 6 2.1.2 Hyperbranched Polymers ························································· 8 2.1.3 Other Dendritic Macromolecules ············································ 10 2.2 Electrostatic Assembly with Polyelectrolytes·····································11 2.2.1 Polyelectrolytes in Solution······················································11 2.2.2 Polyelectrolytes at Interfaces·················································· 13 2.2.3 Polyelectrolyte Complexes ····················································· 14 2.3 Driving Forces for the Fabrication of Multilayers······························ 16 2.3.