Organic-inorganic poly(hydroxyether of bisphenol A) copolymers with double-decker silsesquioxane in the main chains

In this communication, we reported the synthesis of organic-inorganic poly(hydroxyether of bisphenol A) (PH) copolymers with polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) in the main chains via direct polymerization between diepoxy and bisphenol A. Toward this end, a novel diepoxy POSS macromer, i.e., 3,13-diglycidyloxypropyloctaphenyl double-decker silsesquioxane (denoted diglycidyloxypropyl DDSQ) was synthesized via the hydrosilylation between 3,13-dihydrooctaphenyl double-decker silsesquioxane (denoted dihydro DDSQ) and allyl glycidyl ether. Both diglycidyloxypropyl DDSQ and diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) were used as the diepoxy monomers. By adjusting the ratio of diglycidyloxypropyl DDSQ to DGEBA, the PH copolymers with variable content of POSS in the main chains were obtained. It is found that with the direct polymerization the PH copolymers with POSS in the main chains of polymers can be successfully obtained while the content of diglycidyloxypropyl DDSQ was not very high. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) showed that the glass transition temperatures (Tg) of the organic-inorganic PH copolymers were quite dependent on the contents of POSS in the copolymers. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) indicates that the stability of the copolymers was significantly improved in terms of the temperatures at the maximum rate of degradation and the yields of degradation residues. Owing to the presence of POSS in the main chains, the surface hydrophobicity of the organic-inorganic copolymers was significantly improved compared to control PH.