DENDRITIC AND HYPERBRANCHED POLYMERS - EX AMPLES FOR THE CONTROL OF POLYMER PROPERTIES BY MEANS OF SELECTIVE SYNTHESIS OF 3-DIMENSIONAL STRUCTURES

Dendritic polymers are highly branched structures with globular shape and high number of functionalities. In a divergent or convergent stepw ise synthesis perfect macromolecules with controlled size and architec ture are obtained. From the broad variety of dendrimer structures some examples are given and the properties of these unusual polymers are i llustrated. For comparison the hyperbranched polymers, dendritic struc tures with defects made in a one-pot polycondensation reaction, are di scussed. Differences and conformities of properties like molecular wei ght distributions, functionalities, solubility, viscosity behavior and glass transition temperatures for both globular polymer structures ar e explained.