Polymerization of Hybrid Sol-Gel Materials Catalyzed by Photoacids Generation

Various methodologies combining sot-gel chemistry and photopolymerization were implemented to yield novel organic-inorganic nanocomposite photomaterials through photoacids generation. The first part of this paper focuses on cationic systems based on bifunctional organic-inorganic precursor. The photoacid-catalyzed cationic polymerization and sol-gel polycondensation of an epoxytrialkoxysilane precursor enabled the simultaneous generation of the organic and inorganic phases. With a similar strategy, the combination of both radical and cationic photoinitiators is highlighted to achieve an efficient polymerization of a methacrylate silane derivative. Finally, the last part is devoted to the sot-gel photopolymerization of 3 different organo-bridged trialkoxysilane precursors [(R'O)(3)Si-R-Si(OR')(3)].