Radiation curing of hyperbranched polyester resins

A research area that has obtained increasing interest during the last decad e concerns improvement of macromolecular properties by changes in the macro molecular architecture. One group of these materials is dendritic polymers, which are highly branched structures exhibiting very different properties compared with linear polymers. One potential application for these polymers is as radiation curable thermoset resins. This article describes a study w here the use of an aliphatic hyperbranched polyester as a base for new radi ation curable thermoset resins. The hyperbranched polyesters have been char acterized with respect to cure rate and final mechanical properties compare d with conventional resins. It is shown that hyperbranched polyesters can b e used as versatile scaffolds for various radiation curable resin structure s. (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.