Rheological behavior of hyperbranched polymers

Abstract

Hyperbranched polymers represent intriguing class of dendritic polymers, which show remarkable, unique and different chemical and physical properties compared to their linear counterparts, as a result of their complex, three-dimensional structure, presence of a large number of end functional groups and low degree of entanglement. Partial or complete chemical modification of end functional groups can be utilized to improve compatibility with other compounds and to enhance or tailor performances of hyperbranched polymers in order to adjust them for some specific application requirements. The knowledge and understanding of rheological properties of hyperbranched polymers is of great practical importance and therefore this chapter reviews rheological behavior of different hyperbranched polymers using recent investigations presented in the open literature. This review is focused on a discussion of a key factors that show an influence on the rheological properties of hyperbranched polymers, such as nature of the polymer backbone, molecular weight and molecular weight distribution, type and number of end functional groups, etc.