The role of ether-functionalized ionic liquids in the sol-gel process: effects on the initial alkoxide hydrolysis steps

Ricardo K Donato; Marino Lavorgna; Pellegrino Musto; Katarzyna Z Donato; Alessandro Jager; Petr Štěpánek; Henri S Schrekker; Libor Matějka

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2015.01.079

The role of ether-functionalized ionic liquids in the sol-gel process: effects on the initial alkoxide hydrolysis steps

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2015 Jun 1:447:77-84. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2015.01.079. Epub 2015 Feb 7.

Authors

Ricardo K Donato¹, Marino Lavorgna², Pellegrino Musto³, Katarzyna Z Donato⁴, Alessandro Jager⁵, Petr Štěpánek⁵, Henri S Schrekker⁶, Libor Matějka⁵

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Heyrovský Sq. 2, 162 06 Prague 6, Czech Republic; Laboratory of Technological Processes and Catalysis, Institute of Chemistry, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul-UFRGS, Av. Bento Gonçalves, P.O. Box 15003, 9500 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. Electronic address: donatork@gmail.com.
² Institute for Composite and Biomedical Materials, P.le E. Fermi 1, Loc. Granatello, 80055 Portici, NA, Italy.
³ Institute of Chemistry and Technology of Polymers, Via Campi Flegrei 34, 80078 Pozzuoli, NA, Italy.
⁴ Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Heyrovský Sq. 2, 162 06 Prague 6, Czech Republic; Laboratory of Technological Processes and Catalysis, Institute of Chemistry, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul-UFRGS, Av. Bento Gonçalves, P.O. Box 15003, 9500 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil; Institute for Composite and Biomedical Materials, P.le E. Fermi 1, Loc. Granatello, 80055 Portici, NA, Italy.
⁵ Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Heyrovský Sq. 2, 162 06 Prague 6, Czech Republic.
⁶ Laboratory of Technological Processes and Catalysis, Institute of Chemistry, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul-UFRGS, Av. Bento Gonçalves, P.O. Box 15003, 9500 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.

PMID: 25700213
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2015.01.079

Abstract

The ether-functionalized imidazolium ionic liquids (IL) applied in the silica sol-gel process demonstrated a defined coordination potential. These IL display the capacity to control the system organization from the reactions' first moments through a dynamic system-assembling ability, being the sum of ionic and physical interactions, i.e. Coulomb forces, H-bonding and London forces. The initial hydrolysis steps of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) in the presence of these IL were followed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and dynamic light scattering (DLS), both in time-resolved experiments, in an attempt to correlate the structuring and the bonding dynamics of these systems.

Keywords: Dynamic template; Ether-functionalized ionic liquids; Hydrolysis control; Imidazolium ring mobility; Morphology control; Multiple hydrogen-bonds; Sol–gel silica; Time-resolved kinetics.