Thermal pretreatment of silica composite filler materials

Three different silica filler materials were thermally treated in order to effect dehydration, dehydroxylation, and rehydroxylation. Samples were characterized by thermogravimetry (TG), pycnometry, elemental analysis, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). For all fillers, our results indicate incremental removal of silanol groups at higher heating temperatures and irreversible dehydroxylation at over 673 K. To remove the organic content and maintain adequate silanol density for subsequent silanization on Stöber-type silica, we suggest heating at 673 K followed by overnight boiling in water.