Authors: Dylan J Boday Stephanie Tolbert Michael W Keller Zhe Li Jason T Wertz Beatrice Muriithi Douglas A Loy
Publish Date: 2014/02/19
Volume: 16, Issue: 3, Pages: 2313-
Abstract
Silica and polysilsesquioxane particles are used as fillers in composites catalyst supports chromatographic separations media and even as additives to cosmetics The particles are generally prepared by hydrolysis and condensation of tetraalkoxysilanes and/or organotrialkoxysilanes respectively in aqueous alcohol solutions In this study we have discovered a new nonaqueous approach to prepare silica and polysilsesquioxane particles Spherical nearly monodisperse silica particles 600–6000 nm were prepared from the reaction of tetramethoxysilane with formic acid 4–8 equivalents in toluene or toluene/tetrahydrofuran solutions Polymerization of organotrialkoxysilanes with formic acid failed to afford particles but bridged polysilsesquioxane particles were obtained from monomers with two trialkoxysilyl group attached to an organicbridging group The mild acidic conditions allowed particles to be prepared from monomers such as bis3triethoxysilylpropyltetrasulfide which are unstable to Stöber or basecatalyzed emulsion polymerization conditions The bridged polysilsesquioxane particles were generally less spherical and more polydisperse than silica particles Both silica and bridged polysilsesquioxane nanoparticles could be prepared in good yields at monomer concentrations considerably higher than used in Stöber or emulsion approaches
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