*3.1. Synthesis of the Amphiphilic Dendron*

The novel dendritic amphiphile designed herein consists of a branched hydrophobic moiety (substituted triazine) and a cationic carbosilane dendron conjugated through a piperazine moiety, a convenient linker allowing further dendron grafting in relatively mild conditions.

We have synthesized the amphiphile in a convergent way (Scheme 1). The hydrophobic triazine unit has been obtained by the substitution of two chlorides in cyanuric chloride with dodecylamino-residues followed by the subsequent grafting of piperazine. The vinyl-terminated carbosilane dendron G2 having bromine in the focal point has been obtained starting from 4-bromobutylmethyldichlorosilane by iterative hydrosilylation and Grignard reaction steps as described earlier [33]. Two units, namely triazine and dendron ones, were conjugated by simple nucleophilic substitution, and vinyl residues at the periphery of the dendron have been modified via thiol-ene reaction. The resulting amphiphilic molecule contains two hydrophobic tails long enough to form a bilayer, a stimuli-sensitive triazine unit, and a branched polycationic dendron unit.

**Scheme 1.** Synthesis of the amphiphilic dendron: (**i**) *n*-C12H25NH2, CHCl3, NaOH (aq.), 90%; (**ii**) piperazine, CHCl3, 92%; (**iii**) K2CO3, 18-crown-6, KI, acetone, 90%; (**iv**) HS(CH2)2N(CH3)2·HCl, DMPA, 365 nm UV, THF:CH3OH, 75%.
