Nanostructured Hybrid Organic/Inorganic Materials, Silsesquioxane Modified Plastics

Abstract : The design of new materials with enhanced properties continues to be a driver for the investigation of hybrid inorganic/organic polymers. As hybrid materials are copolymers based on inorganic and organic comonomers, they display enhanced properties by bridging the property space between two dissimilar types of compounds. A typical hybrid material will contain a crosslinked inorganic phase bound (often covalently) with an organic phase. Depending on the relative amounts of the two components, the properties of the resulting hybrid are intermediate between those of an inorganic and an organic polymer. Such methodology%' can be used to create either plastic inorganics or toughened plastics, and is superior to traditional blending methods. However, because such materials are crosslinked networks, they are difficult to study and control at the molecular level and are also difficult to process.