Surface Energy of Silica-TEOS-PDMS Ormosils

Inverse gas chromatography (IGC) was applied to characterize the surface energy of organically modified silicates (ormosils) by measuring the interaction of molecular organic probes with the ormosil surface. Ormosils were prepared by the sol-gel method by the reaction of TEOS (tetraethoxysilane), PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) and different types of silica (Aerosil 130, Aerosil 200 and Aerosil 380). The isosteric heat of adsorption, q _st, and the dispersive component of the surface energy, _s ^D, were estimated by using the retention volume of different nonpolar and polar probes at infinite dilution. The dispersive component shows an increase as the specific surface area of the silica is increased from 29.6 mJ/m² to 51.4 mJ/m² at 60°C. Such values are lower than that obtained for aerosil particles meaning that PDMS chains impede the interaction with silanol groups located on the silica surface. The specific interaction parameter, I^SP, and the enthalpy of specific adsorption, H _a ^SP, of polar probes on the ormosil surface were also measured in order to obtain the acid-base character of ormosil surface. The H _a ^SP, was correlated with the donor, DN, and the acceptor, AN, numbers of the probes to quantify the acidic, K _A, and the basic, K _B, parameters of the substrate surface. The obtained results suggest that the silica particles were covered by PDMS chains in a different way depending on the type of silica used. The values of K _A and K _B suggest that the ormosil surface is amphoteric, with predominantly acceptor electron sites.