A high performance ladder-like structured methacrylate siloxane hybrid material (LMSH) was fabricated via simple hydrolytic sol–gel reaction, followed by free-radical polymerization. A structurally ordered siloxane backbone, the ladder-like structure, which is an essential factor for high performance, could be achieved by a short period of sol–gel reaction in only 4 h. This results in superior optical (Transmittance > 90% at 550 nm), thermal (T5 wt % decomposition > 400 ℃), mechanical properties(elastic recovery = 0.86, hardness = 0.6 GPa) compared to the random- and even commercialized cage-structured silsesquioxane, which also has ordered structure. It was investigated that the fabricated ladder-like structured MSH showed the highest overall density of organic/inorganic co-networks that are originated from highly ordered siloxane network, along with high conversion rate of polymerizable methacrylate groups. Our findings suggest a potential of the ladder-like structured MSH as a powerful alternative for the methacrylate polysilsesquioxane, which can be applied to thermally stable and flexible optical coatings, even with an easier and simpler preparation process.
Composition of siloxane hybrid material (hybrimer) was optimized to fabricate glass-fabric reinforced siloxane hybrid (GFRHybrimer) with high transparency and thermal stability. Refractive index of the hybrimer was precisely controlled by changing the phenyl precursor and adding a low refractive index crosslinker monomer. By measuring the thermal stability of GFRHybrimer films fabricated with a refractive index matched using cycloaliphatic epoxy oligosiloxane (CAEO), we obtained an optimal CAEO composition. The optimized GFRHybrimer film showed a high transparency (90%) and good thermal stability (1% weight loss temperature of 365 o C). Also, the fabricated GFRhybrimer film showed a smooth surface (R rms = 0.265 nm), low coefficient of thermal expansion (~14 ppm/ o C), and high elastic modulus (7 GPa).
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