Sol-gel derived inorganic-organic nano hybrid materials (HYBRIMER) are defined as the inorganic network and organic network are covalently bonded with each other in nano scale. They have received considerable attention in the composite materials field due to their exhibiting both inorganic and organic properties. Moreover, their physical property can be easily tuneable in a wide range, since their microstructure and composition are simply modified without the drastic change of reaction parameter.
An important aspect of the fabrication of HYBRIMER is the distribution of the inorganic and organic components homogeneously at a nano scale, since improvement and reproducibility of their properties can be achieved through precise control of component size and distribution. In this regard, the employment of nano-sized, inorganic-organic hybrid resin as a structuring unit is particularly suited to the fabrication of HYBRIMER. Bulk or thick coating films of HYBRIMER with an homogeneous distribution of inorganic and organic components can be easily made from this nano-sized resin, since they are obtained by simple polymerization of the functional organic groups in the resin. Thus, by a suitable selection of precursor molecules and optimization of processing parameters, many nano-sized, hybrid resins have been synthesized for the fabrication of HYBRIMER.
In this work, a photo-curable and a thermal curable nano hybrid resin were synthesized from 3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl methacrylate and diphenylsilanediol, and 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane and diphenylsilanediol, respectively. And their molecular structures were clarified using theoretical computational tool and experimental measurement. Molecular weights and structures of the resins were estimated by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and Raman spectroscopy. Radius of gyrations ($R_g$) and particle sizes of the resins were theoretically computed from quantum chemistry using the Gaussian03 package, and experimentally measured by small-angle neutron scattering (SANS). As a result, it was found that the molecular structure of the resin could be controlled at a nano scale by the composition ratio of precursors.
And also, we fabricated two HYBRIMERs from the resin by the polymerization and investigated the effect of the compositional modification of the resin on the polymerization behavior and the physical properties of HYBRIMERS. It was found that the physical properties of HYBRIMERs are easily tuneable in a wide range by the modification of the composition ratio of precursors, high thermal stability compared with general optical polymers, and they can be good candidates for the optical and MEMS applications.
유기-무기 나노 하이브리드 재료는 유기물의 특성과 무기물의 특성을 동시에 구현할 수 있다는 장점을 지니고 있어 현재 많은 연구가 진행되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 유기수식 올리고실록산(Organically Modified Oligosiloxane) 합성에 의한 고분자-실록산 나노 하이브리드 재료(HYBRIMER)를 제조하고 그 특성을 평가하였다.
유기수식 올리고실록산은 유기실란디올(Organosilanediol)과 유기알콕시실란(Organoalkoxysilane)의 축합반응에 의해 합성되며, 수식된 유기기의 광중합 또는 열중합에 의해 고분자-실록산 나노 하이브리드 재료의 제조가 가능하다. 이러한 고분자-실록산 나노하이브리드 재료는 전구체(Precursor)로 사용되는 유기알콕시실란 및 유기실란디올의 종류와 함량에 따라 기능성의 변화가 가능하므로 다양한 응용분야에 적용될 수 있다. 본 연구에서는 메타크릴-실록산 나노 하이브리드 재료(Methacryl-HYBRIMER)와 에폭시-실록산 나노 하이브리드 재료(Epoxy-HYBRIMER)를 제조하여 조성의 변화에 따른 미세구조 및 특성 변화를 평가하였다. 본 연구에 의하여 제조된 고분자-실록산 나노 하이브리드 재료(HYBRIMER)는 1nm 이하 크기의 올리고실록산이 균일하게 고분자 모상(Matrix)과 결합하고 있는 미세구조를 지니고 있으며, 조성에 따른 특성의 변화가 용이하며, 우수한 열안정성 및 광학적 특성을 구현하였다.
