Reversibly meltable layered alkylsiloxanes with melting points controllable by alkyl chain lengths

Abstract

Meltable layered alkylsiloxanes (CnLSiloxanes) were synthesized from tetraethoxysilane and alkyltrialkoxysilanes with carbon numbers (n) of 12, 16, and 18 via hydrolysis and polycondensation at 100 and 150 °C under basic conditions. Differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) measurements revealed that CnLSiloxanes melted reversibly at −0.8 to 51.3 °C, the melting points being dependent on n. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images showed that thin plates were stacked. X-ray diffraction (XRD) peaks were observed at angles corresponding to distances (d) of 2.1, 2.5, and 2.8 nm for C12-, C16-, and C18LSiloxanes, respectively. High-resolution solid-state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements showed that the organic moieties were alkylsilyl groups with long alkyl chains and that an all-trans conformation was dominant. This was supported by the XRD peak corresponding to a d value of 0.41 nm. High-resolution solid-state 29Si NMR measurements demonstrated the presence of SiO4 and CSiO3 units. A structural model has been proposed for CnLSiloxanes, where siloxane sheets consisting of the SiO4 and CSiO3 units are stacked with the ordered interdigitated monolayer of the alkyl chains in between and are bonded covalently with the alkyl chains.