Synthesis and characterization of organic–inorganic hybrid polymers with a well-defined structure from diamines and epoxy-functionalized polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes

A new class of organic-inorganic hybrid polymers with well-defined structure was prepared by reacting diepoxyhexavinyl polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (DehvPOSS) with diamines of different chain lengths. The structures and properties of these hybrid polymers were well characterized by FTIR, 29Si-NMR, GC-MS, and TGA. A modeling characterization was employed to help identify the structures of organic tethers linked between the POSS cages. The results indicated that at the stoichiometric ratio of DehvPOSS to diamine, well-defined organic–inorganic hybrid polymers with controlled variation of the organic tether architecture can be made, and each organic tether connected four POSS cages. Thermal stability (Tdec) increased with an increase in the tether length of the diamine molecules, and the highest Tdec was obtained with butanediamine (rather than propanediamine or ethanediamine) as the organic tether. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 101: 3730–3735, 2006