A theoretical treatment of the glass temperature of dendritic polymers
is presented. The influences of polymer backbone, end group, initiato
r core, branching unit, composition and functionality are discussed. I
n dendritic polymers the glass temperature is dependent only on the ge
neration number of dendritic growth and thus only on the molecular wei
ght of a dendron, but not on the molecular weight of the whole molecul
e. It is governed primarily by the backbone glass temperature and depe
nds little on branching functionality. Only minor differences between
linear polymer and dendrite are obtained, since the influences of end
groups and branching compensate each other to a large extent. (C) 1995
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.