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- Sol-gel (2)
- 13C NMR (1)
- 29Si NMR (1)
- Curing (1)
- Dimensional stability (1)
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Two fluorescent dyes were incorporated into sol-gel derived SiO2 matrices. The dye was added to SiO2 precursors of different degrees of pre-condensation and the spectroscopic properties of the immobilized dye were measured at various aging and drying stages of the resulting gels. The significant influence of the processing parameters on the spectroscopic properties is manifested in the relative intensity of a second red shifted emission band (550560 nm), which was observed besides the typical coumarin emission band (495 nm). The appearance of this long wavelength emission might be attributed to dye aggregation or to other reactions with the ambient matrix forced by micro porosity phenomena.
The short- and long-term structural evolution and aging of solgel materials prepared under mild conditions are studied by fluorometry, dynamic light scattering (DLS), 29Si NMR and gravimetry. In combination with the first, a newly developed donoracceptor-substituted fluorescent probe with two acidophilic sites of different strength and topology is introduced. Its performance in detecting changes in parameters such as polarity, proticity, and pore volume on the microscopic scale is compared to two other dyes and to the macroscopic changes revealed by DLS, NMR and gravimetry. At early stages of the solgel process, fluorometry, DLS and NMR reveal similar changes which are typical of the structural evolution of SiO2 sols having different synthesis parameters. During later times of sol aging, DLS and NMR reflect the growth of the network and indicate that all sols approach similar structural equilibria. Fluorometry supports these findings by signalling a gradual decrease in mobile species with high proton activity. The formation of the spanning cluster upon gelation is strongly evident only from DLS results while the local environment of the fluorophore remains largely unchanged. However, the fluorescent dye is able to report microscopic changes even during long-term aging. Drying of the gels with a pronounced contraction of solvated pores is readily observable by fluorometry and gravimetry. During the late reaction stages, the fluorescence properties of the tailor-made dye are still sensitive toward the environment.
It has been shown that tetraethoxysilane-derived precursors are suitable solutions for impregnating pine sapwood to improve its dimensional stability. Tailored sol–gel syntheses result in precursors with nano-scaled silica species which are able to penetrate into the cell walls of wood. The physical fixation of those species inside the cell walls was verified by ESEM/EDX investigations. There is evidence that the silica species are chemically bonded to wood components. Nonreacted alkoxy groups can exist in the wood composites after impregnation. The amount of these organic residues depends on the composition of the precursors, especially their condensation degree and reactivity. Treatments for finishing the composites after the impregnation step to get clean products and stable properties are discussed in this context. An explanation of the complex relationship between solids content in the impregnation solutions and percentage weight gain and bulking of the composites is given. It can be demonstrated that high WPG values (>20 %) are pre-conditions for an effective protection of the resulting composites but they only guarantee efficient improvements if connected with the incorporation of the inorganic component inside the cell walls. Therefore, the sol–gel syntheses have to be carried out in such a manner that very small (<2 nm) as well as reactive species are sufficiently available. This demands syntheses using sub-stoichiometric water contents (H2O/TEOS <4, better <2).
The solgel process was applied to enhance properties of pine sapwood. For this purpose wood prisms were soaked in nanoscaled precursor solutions prepared from titanium(IV) n-butoxide and titanium(IV) iso-propoxide, respectively, using vacuum impregnation technique. The wet composites were cured by special program with final heat treatment at 103 °C. Weight percent gains (WPG) of the wood specimen in the range of 19-25% were obtained due to these procedures. SEM investigations show that precursor solutions penetrate into the whole wood body and the titania formed after heat treatment in the composites is deposited in the pores (lumen) and partly in the cell walls of the wooden matrix. The moisture sorption was investigated in long term tests for a period of some months by storage at 20-23 °C in humid air (relative humidity of 99%) and ambient atmosphere (relative humidity 40-60%), respectively. For untreated reference samples the moisture sorption results in increasing of mass and volume according to saturation values of 24 and 13%, respectively, after about 15 days. The incorporation of titania reduces the saturation values of the moisture sorption by up to 12% in mass and by up to 5% in volume at a relative humidity of 99%. Thus, an enhancement of the dimensional stability of about 60% is obtained at best. The results demonstrate that modification of wood with sol-gel derived precursors can enhance its dimensional stability, which prevents the formation of cracks. Because of that reduced moisture sorption biological attacks should be delimited. Additionally, thermal analyses show a retarded combustion of the wood matrix due to titania infiltration.
The present study contributes to the controversial discussion in the literature whether Si–O–C bonds in wood–silica–gel composites exist. 13C NMR is a suitable method to proof such bonds. Because of the low concentration of 13C isotopes in natural wood, 13C cellulose was used as 13C-enriched substitute. A tailored sol for the impregnation of that cellulose was chosen by liquid 29Si NMR pre-investigations of various sols whose reactivity and stability were time-dependently analysed. It is based on a sub-stoichiometric hydrolysis of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) with 1 mol water per mol TEOS. Thermal analyses were performed to show a comparability of the thermal behaviour of wood–silica–gel and cellulose–silica–gel composites. There are two strong hints of the existence of stable Si–O–C bonds: (1) by thermal analysis, a shift in the fire behaviour of 100 K can be observed with a change in pyrolysis behaviour of the composite and (2) the proof by REDOR NMR that a dipolar coupling between 1329Si and 13C nuclei exists.