The metal can be situated in the repeat unit, the core or at the extremities as end-group. Elements often encountered are palladium and platinum. These metals can form octahedral six-coordinate M(IV) linking units from organic dihalides and the corresponding 4-coordinate M(II) monomers. Ferrocene-containing dendrimers and dendrimers with cobaltocene and arylchromiumtricarbonyl units have been reported in end-functional dendrimers.
Metallodendrimers can form as metal complexes with dendritic counter ions for example by hydrolysis of ester terminated PAMAM dendrimers with sodium hydroxide.