Functional silicone oils and elastomers: new routes lead to new properties
Michael A. Brook
Abstract
, aminosilicones, softening of fabrics; silicone polyethers, superwetting agricultural adjuvants). However, relatively little organic chemistry is practiced in commercial silicones, limiting the types of desirable functionality that can be attained. We report the utilization of a series of simple-to-practice organic reactions that take place efficiently on silicone oils to allow the preparation of a wide variety of functional silicones. The silicone oil starting materials typically act as both solvent and educt to allow many of the newer reactions, such as Click processes, to be used to tune the properties of both silicone oil and elastomer products. The review considers the concept of 'functionality' to include: the reactive groups used to enable synthesis of more complicated structures; and separately, the functional properties of the product silicones. One such property that is considered throughout is degradability at end-of-life, which is related to the sustainability of silicones.