Synthesis, Curing and Properties of Silicone-Epoxies

A new kind of silicone-epoxy composite is reported in this research. The silicone-epoxy resin was synthesized by the hydrosilylation of tetramethycyclotetrasiloxane and 4-vinyl-1-cyclohexene 1,2-epoxy with a high reaction yield. It was found that the obtained silicone-epoxy resin shows a high reactive activity to the aluminum complex-silanol catalyst. The resin could be cured under the catalysis of $(Al(acac)_3/Ph_2Si(OH)_2$ at a concentration below 0.1 wt% to give a hard cured resin showing excellent optical clarity, UV resistance and thermal stability. It was also found that the Si-H groups facilitated the curing reaction and the silicone-epoxy resin bearing Si-H group could be cured effectively even if $Ph_2Si(OH)_2h$ was absent. Moreover, the UV resistance and thermal stability were improved significantly by the introduction of Si-H groups. This is possibly due to the reductive property of Si-H groups which can annihilate radical and peroxide effectively. This kind of silicone-containing epoxy composite might have very promising applications as optical resin, optical adhesive and encapsulation materials for electronic devices.