In 1984, one year before the passing of Prof. P. Flory, I had the rare opportunity to spend a week with him on the occasion of the 1st International SPSJ Polymer Meeting in Kyoto, Japan. It was at this SPSJ conference, that I presented the first public lecture describing the synthesis and characterization of poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimers. During this meeting, there were several historical opportunities to enjoy discussions with Flory concerning his first theoretical concepts for synthesizing highly branched polymers reminiscent of trees.1 It was in one of those discussions that Flory made a memorable comment concerning his theoretical tree-like polymers. Flory stated--Isn't it strange that we are discussing the synthesis and characterization of symmetrical, ideal tree-branched polymers called dendrimers and yet there are no well characterized examples of my asymmetric, highly branched polymers in the literature? Today dendritic polymers are widely recognized as the 4th major architectural class of macromolecules after: (I) Linear, (II) Cross-linked and (III) Branched polymers (Figure 1).2Furthermore, within this dendritic category Flory's theoretical tree-like polymers and dendrimers are actually recognized as subclasses in addition to dendrigraft and dendron macromolecules. It was not until 1988 that the actual synthesis and characterization of Flory's theoretical, highly branched polymers was first reported in a paper by Odian, et al.3 Although appropriately named and recognized by Webster and Kim in 1988-90,4 it was unfortunate that the significance of this first report on random hyperbranched polymers was lost in the flurry of attention being given to dendrimers at that time.References: 1. Tomalia, D.A.; Fr�chet, J.M.J. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2002 , 40, 2719.2. Dendrimers, Dendrons and Dendritic Polymers: Discovery, Applications, the Future, Tomalia, D.A.; Christensen J.B.; Boas, U. Cambridge University Press, NY (2012).3. Gunilake, P.A.; Odian, G.; Tomalia, D.A. Macromolecules 1988 , 21, 1556.4. Kim, Y.H.; Webster, O.W. Polym. Preprint 1988  , 29, 310; J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1990  , 112, 4592.

Prof. G. Odian: Concerning the first synthesis and characterization of a random hyperbranched polymer

247th National Meeting (2014)

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