Mass spectrometric study of high-temperature dehydroxylation of disperse silicas and the interpretation of their IR spectra in the region of Si-O stretching vibrations

Field-desorption mass spectrometry has been used to determine the lower boundary of the temperature interval for the removal of surface hydroxyl groups ofaerosil. Both in the regime of cation desorption and in the regime of anion desorption, at temperatures above 900°K, OH ions of the corresponding sign are registered. It is concluded that the thermal decomposition of the surface bonds Si-OH is homolytic in character. A mechanism is proposed for the dehydroxylation of SiO₂, according to which the initially formed radical centers Si and SiO^. change into ions: Si⁺ (I) and SiO^– (II). The bands at 888 and 908 cm^–1 in the IR spectra of silicas obtained at high temperatures are assigned to vibrations of Si-O bonds in I and II, respectively.Translated from Teoreticheskaya i Éksperimental'naya Khimiya, Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 61–66, January–February, 1985.