Finely divided methylsilsesquioxane particles with SiO4/2 fragments in structure

Results of structural and morphological investigations of methylsilsesquioxane finely divided particles synthesized by hydrolytic co-condensation of in situ alkoxylated methyltrichlorosilane and tetrachlorous silicon are presented. The silica-type hydrophobe particles have been obtained using the abovementioned method with an output of 98.7-99.4 wt% of the load. These particles have been identified as crystalline formations with a lattice period of 5.5-8.0 nm and an interplane distance of 0.92-1.04 nm in the near order. We show that unlike for well-known crystalline methylsilsesquioxanes, introduction of chemically bonded SiO4/2 fragments to the material structure leads to the formation of 2-3 μm-sized spherical particles from the initial 10-15 nm particles; these particles are responsible for the spherical morphology of the surface. A method of extracting siloxane nanoparticles (2.5-280 nm) from the reaction products has been described, the behavior of particles in suspension has been studied and particle dimensional parameters have been determined using helium−neon 0.6328 nm laser correlation spectroscopy.