Organic Macromolecular High Dielectric Constant Materials: Synthesis, Characterization, and Applications

Hyperbranched and dendritic architectures have been targeted for various applications such as sensing, drug delivery, optical limiting, and light harvesting. One interesting development in this area has focused on utilizing the existence of long-range delocalization in hyperbranched structures to achieve high dielectric constants. In this Feature Article, we will review the creation and development of this concept, and we highlight our recent research progress in this aspect. In particular, we discuss (1) synthetic methods for a particular group of hyperbranched polymers; (2) detailed optical and electronic characterization of this group of hyperbranched polymers, revealing the design criteria for achieving a good combination of high dielectric constant and minimum loss in such materials; and (3) the importance and potential applications of these materials.