Poly(Vinyl Alcohol)-Inorganic Hybrid Materials with Thermocleavable Groups

A series of novel hybrid materials have been prepared by the Diels-Alder reaction of poly(vinyl furfural) to maleimide compound followed by the sol-gel condensation of triethoxysilyl groups with water and acetic acid. The poly(vinyl furfural) having acetalization degree of 15% and 25% were obtained by the acid-catalyzed homogenous acetalization of poly(vinyl alcohol) with 2-furfural in a nonaqueous media. The resulting hybrid materials were characterized by the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffractions, scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The thermal properties were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric and dynamic mechanical analysis. The thermal stability of the hybrid materials increased with increasing the inorganic content.