Hyperbranched polymers as modifiers for thermoset resins

Hyperbranched polymers (HBPs) have received much attention for years due to their unique chemical and physical properties. In this review, the advancement in controlling the HBPs chemistry and the applications of HBPs in such thermoset resins as epoxy, bismaleimide, vinylester-urethane hybrid were summarized. HBPs can improve the toughness of the cured resins with little decrease on glass transition temperature or Young's module, which make HBPs have the most promising application in the thermoset resins. Currently, the use of HBPs in thermoset resins is not industrialized, therefore, there is a greater need for further study in addition to understand the exact toughening mechanism of HBPs. In this paper, the popular toughening mechanisms of HBPs in the thermoset resins were reviewed, and the future works of HBPs as modifiers for the thermoset resins were anticipated.