Preparation and characteristics of self-floating silica

Tetraethyl ortho-silicate (TEOS) and octadecyl 2-((3-(triethoxysilyl) propyl) amino) acetate (SP) are used as modification agents at the ratios of 1:5, 1:1, 4:1 and 1:0 of TEOS: SP to form the silica by sol-gel process. Silica in both liquid form as well as powder forms at different compositions by weight percent have been subjected to the photo-polymerization with polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) in the presence of photo initiator (2- hydroxyl 2 methyl 1- phenyl 1 prop none (1173)). FTIR study is performed to identify various functional groups in the prepared materials, whereas, TEM and SEM are conducted to investigate particle size and surface morphology respectively. Moreover, transition glass temperature, storage and loss modulus are reported via DMA. The results indicated that TEOS: SP ratio has proved to be highly significant, among them 1:5 ratio is the most beneficial in terms of yielding maximum self-floating, hydrophobicity and roughness with minimum glossy nature of silica.