Dendrimer: a snowflake like polymer with a core molecule, radiating branches and many terminal groups. May be synthesized in layers (generations) by an iterative, divergent, synthetic approach , or by synthesizing dedrons and attaching them to the core in the final step, a convergent approach.
This is a dendrimer, a snowflake like polymer based on the silsesquioxane core. Each corner of the silsesquioxane has become the root of a branch, based on poly(amido amine) chemistry. While these molecules look very complex, the synthetic routes are high yielding.
Hyperbranched Polymer: a highly branched polymer with a core molecule, radiating branches and many terminal groups. Normally synthesized in 'one pot' from the core and consequently with a less perfect, more random structure than a dendrimer.
Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane: a cubic molecule (although other shapes and sizes do exist), a cage constructed of silicon and oxygen atoms with one substituent per corner silicon atom.
This is a Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane and is the molecule at the core of my research interests. It is a cubic molecule (although other shapes and sizes do exist), a cage constructed of silicon and oxygen atoms. We can carry out reactions on the groups at each corner to synthesize larger molecules such as dendrimers and hyperbranched polymers. Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane is often abbreviated to PSS or POSS, mainly because it is difficult to pronounce silsesquioxane!