Premium
Dynamics of hyperbranched polymers and dendrimers: theoretical models
Author(s) -
Blumen Alexander,
Jurjiu Aurel,
Koslowski Thorsten
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
macromolecular symposia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.257
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1521-3900
pISSN - 1022-1360
DOI - 10.1002/masy.200450634
Subject(s) - dendrimer , macromolecule , gel point , polymer , scaling , chemical physics , statistical physics , fractal , diffusion , dynamics (music) , polymer science , materials science , chemistry , physics , thermodynamics , polymer chemistry , mathematics , organic chemistry , mathematical analysis , biochemistry , geometry , acoustics
Abstract Chemical reactions depend in many ways on the dynamics of the underlying reactants, and an important aspect is the distance covered by the reactants before the reaction act occurs. Hence, even diffusion‐limited reactions between point particles in confined geometries and in low‐dimensional systems display decay forms which are very different from those obtained from simple chemical kinetics. Clearly, even more complex decay forms hold for macromolecules, given their internal degrees of freedom. Here we discuss how the dynamics of macromolecules in solution relates to their topological structure and focus on the motion of macromolecular segments (monomers) under the influence of external fields. After a general survey of the method of generalized Gaussian structures (GGS) we recall the wealth of forms which are observed, depending on the topology and on the microscopic dynamics involved. Paradigmatic are the findings for the class of hyperbranched macromolecules; to these belong the dendrimers. While the dendrimers do not show a typical scaling behavior, as found, say, for linear chains, the situation is different for particular classes of regular hyperbranched polymers which are fractal. We end by discussing their pattern of motion in the GGS‐Rouse‐Zimm picture.