Center of Eco-material and Green Chemistry, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, PR China.
Center of Eco-material and Green Chemistry, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, PR China; Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China.
J Colloid Interface Sci. 2019 Mar 22;540:554-562. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2019.01.059. Epub 2019 Jan 16.
Porous monolithic materials have wide potential applications in various fields. However, it is still very challenging to obtain flexible silica monolithic materials that could withstand diverse mechanical deformations. Here, we report a simple method for the preparation of strong, compressible, bendable and stretchable (SCBS) silicone sponges. The SCBS silicone sponges were fabricated by solvent-controlled hydrolytic polycondensation of silanes in the presence of co-solvents of water, followed by being dried at ambient pressure at 60 °C. The mechanical properties of the SCBS silicone sponges depend on their network structure, which is controllable by the co-solvents with different polarity, e.g., alcohols, alkanes and arenes. The co-solvents affect the network structure by influencing the hydrolysis and polycondensation of silanes in the sol-gel and phase separation processes. The SCBS silicone sponges are highly compressible (90%), bendable (20 mm) and stretchable (50%). The SCBS silicone sponges are also superhydrophobic/superoleophilic, and are promising materials for clean-up of oil contaminants from water surface. Moreover, the SCBS silicone sponges show high stability in a wide range of temperature (-196 to 300 °C). We believe that the SCBS silicone sponge will find applications in many fields, and the findings in this study will shed light on the design of novel silica monolithic materials.
多孔整体材料在各个领域都有广泛的应用潜力。然而，获得能够承受各种机械变形的柔性二氧化硅整体材料仍然是一个非常具有挑战性的问题。在这里，我们报告了一种简单的方法来制备强韧、可压缩、可弯曲和可拉伸（SCBS）的硅胶海绵。SCBS 硅胶海绵是通过在共溶剂水和醇、烷烃和芳烃等不同极性的共溶剂的存在下，控制硅烷的水解缩聚反应，然后在 60°C 的常压下干燥制得的。SCBS 硅胶海绵的机械性能取决于其网络结构，而网络结构可以通过不同极性的共溶剂来控制。共溶剂通过影响硅烷在溶胶-凝胶和相分离过程中的水解和缩聚反应来影响网络结构。SCBS 硅胶海绵具有高压缩性（90%）、可弯曲（20mm）和可拉伸性（50%）。SCBS 硅胶海绵还具有超疏水/超亲油性，是从水面清除油类污染物的有前途的材料。此外，SCBS 硅胶海绵在很宽的温度范围内（-196 至 300°C）表现出高稳定性。我们相信，SCBS 硅胶海绵将在许多领域得到应用，本研究的结果将为新型二氧化硅整体材料的设计提供启示。
