Design and controlled synthesis by dual polymerization of new organic–inorganic hybrid material for photonic devices

Abstract

Organic–inorganic hybrid material was synthesized by double polymerization processes i.e. a sol–gel process and organic polymerization respectively. For this study, hybrid monomer, 4-vinyl ether-phenyltriethoxysilane (VEPTES) was used as starting building block. First, the silica matrix with tunable ratio of siloxane and silanol units was synthesized by a sol–gel process under acidic conditions and the organic network was formed by cationic photopolymerization of vinyl ether groups. Mineral and organic polymerization kinetics were respectively monitored by liquid ²⁹Si-NMR and IR spectroscopy. The effect of the silicate backbone on the organic photopolymerization process was studied and elucidated. The optical performance of this new hybrid material has been studied using the near-infrared spectroscopy.