Photocurable glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane based sol-gel hybrid materials

Hybrid sol-gel materials are promising candidates for electro/optical applications, combining the most important glass-like and polymer-like properties. Hybrid patternable materials produced by photopolymerisation processes have been mainly developed on 3-methacrloxypropyltrimethoxysilane based systems in which the polymerisable organic function is the CC bond of the methacrylic group. A new photosensitive hybrid material is described here, based on 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GPTMS) and on the cationic photopolymerisation of the epoxide groups, which lead to the formation of a PEO organic interpenetrating network.