Kinetics Study of the Acidic Catalyzed Polymerization of Tetraethoxysilane by 29Si NMR.

Abstract

ABSTRACTTEOS has been hydrolysed under acidic condition with stoichiome-tric or excess amount of water. Evolution of the silicon species is followed by 29Si NMR. The data are analyzed at different levels of detail; first, analysis of the by products of polymerization reactions, second determination of the extents and overall rate constants of hydrolysis and condensation reactions and finally kinetics simulations of the evolution taking into account all the present silicon species. We have shown that the hydrolysis rate increases with the number of hydroxyl groups, and the reesterification reactions have a significant contribution. We also found that condensation reactions preferentially occur with loss of water between the more hydrolyzed monomers; their rates rapidly decrease with the degree of condensation. We compare the two compositions as a function of their water content and pH.