Preparation and properties of poly (styrene-co-maleic anhydride) / silica hybrid materials by the in situ sol-gel process

Abstract

Poly( styrene-co-maleic anhydride )/silica hybrid material has been successfully prepared from styrene-maleic anhydride copolymer and tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) in the presence of a coupling agent (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES) by an in situ sol-gel process. It was observed that the gel time of sol-gel solution was dramatically influenced by the amount of APTES. The hybrid material exhibits optical transparency almost as good as both silica gel and the copolymer. The covalent bonds between organic and inorganic phases were introduced by the aminolysis reaction of the amino group with maleic anhydride units of copolymer to form a copolymer bearing trimethoxysilyl groups, which undergo hydrolytic polycondensation with TEOS. The differential scanning calorimetry ( DSC ) showed that the glass transition temperature of the hybrid materials increases with increasing of SiO 2 composition. Photographs of scanning electron microscopy ( SEM ) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) inferred that the size of the inorganic particles in the hybrid materials was less than 20 nm.