TY - JOUR A1 - Kricheldorf, H.R. A1 - Weidner, Steffen A1 - Lahcini, M. T1 - Multicyclic polyesters of trimesic acid and alkanediols and the theory of network formation N2 - Trimesoyl chloride is polycondensed with various alpha,omega'-alkanediols in dichloromethane at different concentrations using equifunctional feed ratios. As evidenced by MALDI-TOF (matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight) mass spectrometry the soluble reaction products mainly consist of perfect multicyclic oligomers and polymers. The solphase extracted from the gels also consists of perfect multicycles. SEC (size exclusion chromatography) measurements show that both soluble reaction products and extracted solphases also contain a high molar mass fraction of perfect and nonperfect multicycles extending up to masses beyond 10 5 g mol-1. When the polycondensation is stopped after a few minutes perfect multicycles are already detectable in the reaction mixture along with functional (multi)cyclic oligomers. These results prove that at initial monomer concentrations < 0.2 mol L-1 networks and large multicyclic polymers are synthesized from functional cyclic oligomers formed in early stages of the polycondensation and not from hyperbranched polymers. This interpretation is presented as 'egg-first theory' and compared with the 'hen-first theory' of Stockmayer and Flory. KW - a2 + b3 polycondensation KW - Cyclization KW - MALDI KW - Multicyclic polymers KW - Networks PY - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/macp.201500245 SN - 1022-1352 SN - 1521-3935 VL - 216 IS - 21 SP - 2095 EP - 2106 PB - Wiley-VCH Verl. CY - Weinheim AN - OPUS4-35282 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -