Hybrid sol-gel optical materials
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy
InventorJohn M. Zeigler
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Abstract
Hybrid sol-gel materials comprise silicate sols cross-linked with linear polysilane, polygermane, or poly(silane-germane). The sol-gel materials are useful as optical identifiers in tagging and verification applications and, in a different aspect, as stable, visible light transparent non-linear optical materials. Methyl or phenyl silicones, polyaryl sulfides, polyaryl ethers, and rubbery polysilanes may be used in addition to the linear polysilane. The linear polymers cross-link with the sol to form a matrix having high optical transparency, resistance to thermooxidative aging, adherence to a variety of substrates, brittleness, and a resistance to cracking during thermal cycling.
Claims7
A hybrid sol-gel comprising an orthosilicate ester network cross-linked with siloxane linkages, said hybrid sol-gel having been generated by exposure of polysilane bearing sol-gel hybrid material to actinic radiation.
A hybrid sol-gel comprising a mixed orthosilicate-orthotitanate ester network cross-linked with Si-O or Ti-O bonds, said cross-linked sol-gel having been generated by exposure of a polysilane-bearing sol-gel hybrid to actinic radiation.
A process for preparing a cross-linked sol-gel hybrid material, comprising:
- (a) forming a precursor material by copolymerizing an orthosilicate ester or a mixture of orthosilicate and orthotitanate esters with a linear polysilane, linear polygermane, or linear silane-germane copolymer;
- and
- (b) photolyzing said precursor material with actinic radiation.
A process for preparing a sol-gel hybrid material cross-linked with oxygen linkages, comprising photolyzing an orthosilicate or mixed orthosilicate-orthotitanate ester network having linear polymers of the formula
- X-(MR.sub.1 R.sub.2).sub.n -X
- substantially bonded therein, wherein X constitutes an oxygen atom which is part of the sol-gel network, M is silicon or germanium or a mixture of these elements, R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 are selected from the group consisting of alkyl, aryl and silyl radicals, and n ranges from 3 to about 100.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.