Synthesis of novel multifunctional siloxane oligomers using sol-gel techniques and their photoinitiated cationic polymerization

Employing modified sol-gel techniques, trialkoxysilanes bearing either epoxy or 1-propenyl ether functional groups can be condensed under well controlled conditions to yield a series of soluble multifunctional siloxane oligomers. The key to the success of this synthetic approach was the use of weakly acidic ion-exchange resins as catalysts. The novel multifunctional oligomers displayed exceptionally high reactivity in photoinitiated cationic polymerization using diaryliodonium salts as photoinitiators. Polymerization involved not only addition polymerization of the pendant epoxide or 1-propenyl ether groups but also acid-catalyzed hydrolysis and condensation of residual alkoxy groups along the siloxane backbone.