Issue 86, 2023

Functional silicone oils and elastomers: new routes lead to new properties

Abstract

Silicones are mostly utilized for their stability to a range of vigorous environmental conditions, which arises, in part, from the lack of functionality in finished products. The commonly used functional groups in silicones, e.g., SiH, SiCH[double bond, length as m-dash]CH2, are mostly consumed during final product synthesis. Organic functional groups may also be found in silicone products, including organic alcohols, amines, polyethers, etc., that deliver functionality not achieved by traditional organic polymers (e.g., aminosilicones, softening of fabrics; silicone polyethers, superwetting agricultural adjuvants). However, relatively little organic chemistry is practiced in commercial silicones, limiting the types of desirable functionality that can be attained. We report the utilization of a series of simple-to-practice organic reactions that take place efficiently on silicone oils to allow the preparation of a wide variety of functional silicones. The silicone oil starting materials typically act as both solvent and educt to allow many of the newer reactions, such as Click processes, to be used to tune the properties of both silicone oil and elastomer products. The review considers the concept of ‘functionality’ to include: the reactive groups used to enable synthesis of more complicated structures; and separately, the functional properties of the product silicones. One such property that is considered throughout is degradability at end-of-life, which is related to the sustainability of silicones.

Graphical abstract: Functional silicone oils and elastomers: new routes lead to new properties

Article information

Article type
Feature Article
Submitted
22 Jul 2023
Accepted
02 Oct 2023
First published
05 Oct 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Commun., 2023,59, 12813-12829

Functional silicone oils and elastomers: new routes lead to new properties

M. A. Brook, Chem. Commun., 2023, 59, 12813 DOI: 10.1039/D3CC03531J

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