Hydrolysis kinetics of silane coupling agents studied by near-infrared spectroscopy plus partial least squares model

A method of Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy combined with partial least squares (PLS) model was successfully applied to investigate the hydrolysis kinetics of four kinds of silane coupling agents (phenyltriethoxysilane, vinyltriethoxysilane, 3-mercaptopropyltriethoxysilane, 3-chloropropyltriethoxysilane) in an acid-catalyzed EtOH system. The fast scanning speed and high sensitivity of the FT-NIR spectroscopy, and the powerful data processing ability of the PLS, enabled the method to quantitatively and accurately catch the fast changing H2O concentration during the hydrolysis processes without delay, realizing the study of the fast-paced hydrolysis reactions of the silane coupling agents. The results showed that electrophilic substitution occurred in the hydrolysis reactions, which followed second-order reactions and greatly depend on the catalyst concentration and reaction temperature. The hydrolysis rate constants, activation energy, and Arrhenius Frequency factors were gained. In conclusion, the FT-NIR PLS model is a powerful tool for hydrolysis kinetics researching of the silane coupling agents.