Synthesis, characterization, and properties of new polystyrene-SiO2 hybrid sol-gel materials

Abstract

A new family of organic-inorganic hybrid materials has been prepared by incorporating polystyrene structure units covalently into the SiO2 glass network via the sol-gel approach. The polymer precursors were synthesized by free-radical copolymerization of styrene with 3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl methacrylate (MSMA) at various feeds. These copolymers were then hydrolyzed and co-condensed with tetraethyl orthosilicate in tetrahydrofuran at room temperature to afford monolithic polystyrene-SiO2 hybrid sol-gel materials having SiO2 contents of 15 to 84% by weight. The hybrid materials derived from the copolymers with MSMA contents greater than 22 mol% have excellent optical transparency. In these transparent hybrid materials, the polymer chains should be uniformly distributed in and covalently bonded to the amorphous SiO2 matrices. The bulk properties of these materials including density, refractive index, and hardness were found to be related to their molecular compositions and can be tailored by varying the polymer contents.