Catalyst‐free synthesis of polyorganosiloxanes by high temperature and pressure water. II. Understanding of the reaction process

A catalyst‐free polysiloxane synthetic process that uses high temperature and pressure water for the hydrolysis and subsequent polycondensation of phenyltrimethoxysilane was studied in detail to gain insights into the reaction mechanism. It was suggested that this process is essentially composed of two stages: (1) oligomerization of phenyltrimethoxysilane yielding low‐molecular weight species with high contents of silanol and methoxy groups and (2) polycondensation of the oligomers yielding high‐molecular weight species. The use of a preformed oligosiloxane as a starting material was informative to understand the polycondensation stage. A modified synthetic process in which a stop valve was introduced to control the internal pressure was developed based on the understanding of the present process. This modified process enabled a two‐stage reaction resulting in a discernible increase of the molecular weight of polysiloxane. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 2656–2663, 2009