Thermal analysis of PMMA/gel silica glass composites

Thermal analysis of poly-methylmethacrylate (PMMA) impregnated porous gel silica glasses confirms that the PMMA chains form hydrogen bonds with the pore surface silanol groups. The adopted conditions for the in-situ polymerisation result in about 4% of residual monomers trapped in the polymer, most of them in the amorphous structure. The polymer and monomer mixture takes up the whole of the free pore volume. Most of the residual monomer polymerises during the DSC scans above the glass transition temperature providing an excellent probe for the weak glass transition. Polymerisation in the gel silica glass medium affects the glass transition temperature, the length of polymer chains, and the degree of polymerisation.