The balance between hydrolysis and condensation in using silane coupling agents is crucial to the linking of organofunctional substituents onto inorganic surfaces. Understanding the kinetics and reactivity remains the key in obtaining the desired surface topography and silane surface coverage. Recently, a new class of silane coupling agents, called cyclic azasilanes, have been made, and these can couple to hydroxylated inorganic oxides and nanoparticles very rapidly. Such cyclic azasilanes have been shown to be effective surface modification substrates with minimal byproducts. Their rapid reaction with surface hydroxyls occurs in a fraction of the reaction time (generally less than one minute), compared to that of the conventional silane coupling agents. The effect of varying functionality, as well as the ring structure, was investigated, and the kinetics of rapid surface coupling determined by FTIR. Comparisons to their conventional silane coupling agents were then made to afford a complete understanding of the advantages and surface chemistry of these cyclic azasilanes. The observed hydrolysis and ring opening reaction rates analyzed by FTIR and the surface chemistry analyzed by XPS will be presented.

Cyclic azasilanes: A kinetic approach to rapid silane surface modification

249th National Meeting (2015)

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