Novel inorganic morphologies formed in polyimide/silica hybrid films

2-(4-Aminophenyl)-5-aminobenzimidazole was used to prepare polyimide/silica hybrid films via sol-gel process. At 40 wt.% silica content, hybrid films were still translucent. No noticeable silica particle has been observed. Unexpectedly, after treating at 800 °C, novel morphologies of silica were observed on the surface of inorganic films, which changed from homogeneous to sea-island and to co-continuous structure with increasing silica content in the matrix. Hydrogen bonding between NH in imidazole and silanol group results that silica tends to linear structures, which is considered as the main reason for this morphological change.