Ceramers from aqueous polymer solutions of poly(ethylene oxide)

The combination of inorganic and organic components in single materials makes accessible an immense new area of materials science that has profound implications in the development of novel materials, exhibiting a wide range of multifunctional properties. The so-called "sol–gel" process is normally used for the production of an inorganic phase within an organic polymer or cross-linkable oligomers. When the domain size of such materials is reduced to nanometer levels and the phases are interconnected, the hybrid materials are usually called "ceramers". The systems considered in this work are based on a water-soluble polymer, poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and silica (SiO2) networks produce by the sol-gel method. The PEO precursor solution was prepared by dissolving the resin in water at room temperature. Tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) was used as the alkoxysilane precursor. Different types of alkoxysilane precursors were prepared, based on TEOS and silane coupling agent. The silica present in the hybrid system was formulated to be at 25%, 35% and 50% w/w. [Continues.]