Preparation and characters of hyperbranched polyester‐based organic‐inorganic hybrid material compared with linear polyester

To compare the properties of hyperbranched polymers with linear oligomers for preparing organic‐inorganic hybrids, hyperbranched aliphatic polyester (Boltorn^TM H20) and linear polyester hexa‐acrylate (EB830) were selected as organic components for preparing UV‐curable transparent hybrid materials using 3‐(trimethoxysilyl) propylmethacrylate as a coupling agent via a sol‐gel process. The prehydrolyzed product of tetraethoxysilane was used as an inorganic component. The effects of inorganic content on the morphologies, thermal behaviors, photopolymerizaiton kinetics and mechanical properties of the hybrids were investigated. The results show that for hyperbranched polyester‐based hybrids, the organic phase shows much better compatibility with inorganic phase even at high inorganic component content due to its special spheral shape and plenty of functional end groups, compared with linear EB830‐based hybrids. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.