DendriMacs and HyperMacs – emerging as more than just model branched polymers.

The past decade has seen an emerging interest in the design and synthesis of ever more complex, hierarchically branched polymers – often described as dendritically branched polymers. In part, this has been driven by the long-established desire of both the polymer academic and industrial (production and process) communities to gain a true understanding of the effects of molecular architecture variables upon polymer properties and the implications for polymer process engineering. However, the intrinsically unique properties associated with such branched polymer systems offers the potential to move beyond ‘model’ polymers. In this paper we will describe some of the most notable work being carried out in this field as well as focusing on work carried out in our group on the synthesis of DendriMacs and HyperMacs – a methodology that is emerging as one the most effective and versatile of the synthetic methodologies reported to date.