Inorganic silica polymers

The most common process for making inorganic silica polymers is the reaction of water with silicon tetraethoxide (TEOS) in a solvent of ethanol. The major factor controlling the properties of the silica polymers is the solution pH, with water concentration being second. In acidic solution, the resulting polymers yield gels that are clear, have very fine porosity, and form fully dense silica at relatively low temperatures (<800 °C). In contrast, in alkaline... 

Sand and rock are network inorganic silica polymers containing Si—O moieties whose structured formula approximates SiOj. Glass is also such a polymer derived from sand. 

In this article, we will discuss the use of physical adsorption to determine the total surface areas of finely divided powders or solids, e.g., clay, carbon black, silica, inorganic pigments, polymers, alumina, and so forth. The use of chemisorption is confined to the measurements of metal surface areas of finely divided metals, such as powders, evaporated metal films, and those found in supported metal catalysts. 

Another advantage of using inorganic silica particles over polymer particles is that they don t shrink or swell when exposed to aqueous or nonaqueous environments. In the case of... 

Almost at the same time (1996), Tanaka and co-workers [33] and Fields [34] expanded the research field of continuous polymer support by the introduction of (derivatized) inorganic silica rods, which were prepared by sol-gel process of silane precursors [tetramethoxysilane (TMOS) or dimethyloctadecylchlorosilane (ODS)] in the presence of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) as porogen. 

The preferentially employed approach for the fabrication of inorganic (silica) monolithic materials is acid-catalyzed sol-gel process, which comprises hydrolysis of alkoxysilanes as well as silanol condensation under release of alcohol or water [84-86], whereas the most commonly used alkoxy-silane precursors are TMOS and tetraethoxysilane (TEOS). Beside these classical silanes, mixtures of polyethoxysiloxane, methyltriethoxysilane, aminopropyltriehtoxysilane, A-octyltriethoxysilane with TMOS and TEOS have been employed for monolith fabrication in various ratios [87]. Comparable to free radical polymerization of vinyl compounds (see Section 1.2.1.5), polycondensation reactions of silanes are exothermic, and the growing polymer species becomes insoluble and precipitates... 

For select polymers that are soluble, the method is very simple. The polymerization of the silica precursor occurs around the preformed polymer chains or domains. When the organic polymer is formed before the inorganic polymer, the result is a sequential organic/inorganic interpenetrating polymer network. 

Historically, polysiloxane elastomers have been reinforced with micron scale particles such as amorphous inorganic silica to form polysiloxane microcomposites. However, with the continued growth of new fields such as soft nanolithography, flexible polymer electronics and biomedical implant technology, there is an ever increasing demand for polysiloxane materials with better defined, improved and novel physical, chemical and mechanical properties. In line with these trends, researchers have turned towards the development of polysiloxane nanocomposites systems which incorporate a heterogeneous second phase on the nanometer scale. Over the last decade, there has been much interest in polymeric nanocomposite materials and the reader is directed towards the reviews by Alexandre and Dubois (4) or Joshi and Bhupendra (5) on the subject. 

The columns used for the separation of phenolic acids are mainly reversed phase (RP), other sihca-based chemically bound phases, and non-silica polymers or mixed inorganic-organic phases. Special silica sorbents with reduced metallic residue contents and minimum residual silanol groups on the surface could positively influence peak symmetry without the strict demands for the successful separation of acidic analytes. Almost exclusively, RP C18 phases ranging from 100 to 250 mm in length and usually with an internal diameter of 3.9 to 4.6 mm are recommended. Particle sizes are in the range of 3-10 pm. Short 50- 100-mm columns with 3-pm particles have also been tested for fast phenolic acid separations. Narrow bore columns (internal diameter 2 mm) are recommended especially for HPLC-MS applications.Some problems could arise with the applications of narrow or microbore columns in the direct injections of plant extracts there is the possibility of plugging the column after repeated injections. In these cases, an additional clean-up step has to be applied instead of just the simple extraction... 

These are obtained by dispersion of one or more solid fillers in a binder. The binder should be either inorganic (silica based ceramic) or organic (thermosetting or thermoplastic polymers) depending on the environmental conditions. Fillers are composed of ferrite described above with granulometry comprised between 12 and 100 pm and also of simple ferromagnetic compounds (Fe, Co, Ni) or complex alloys. 

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