Publications Details
Structure-property relationships in silica-siloxane nanocomposite materials
The simultaneous formation of a filler phase and a polymer matrix via in situ sol-gel techniques provides silica-siloxane nanocomposite materials of high strength. This study concentrates on investigating the effects of temperature and relative humidity (RH) on a trimodal polymer system in an attempt to accelerate the reaction as well as evaluate subtle process-structure-property relationships. It was found that successful process acceleration is only viable for high humidity systems when using the tin(IV) catalyst dibutyltin dilaurate (DBTDL). Processes involving low humidity were found to be very temperature and time dependent. Bimodal systems were investigated and demonstrated that the presence of a short-chain component led to enhanced material strength. This part of the study also revealed a link between the particle size and population density and the optimization of material properties.