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Updated: Sep 23, 2025
Preparation of Functional Silica Using a Bioinspired Method
Published on: August 1, 2018
Original Basic Activation for Enhancing Silica Particle Reactivity: Characterization by Liquid Phase Silanization and
Enzo Moretto1, Chuanyu Yan1, Reiner Dieden1
1MRT Department, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, 41 Rue du Brill, L-4422 Belvaux, Luxembourg.
Abstract:
Silica fillers are used in various nanocomposites in combination with silanes as a reinforcing filler. In tire technology, silica is generally functionalized before (pre-treated) or during mixing (in-situ silanization or post-treated). In both cases, a soft base catalyst (e.g., triethylamine or diphenyl guanidine, DPG) is typically used to accelerate and increase the yield of the silane/silica coupling reaction. In this study, we investigated how pre-treatments of silica particles with either strong amine or hydride bases impact the silanization of silica prior to or during SBR mixing for silica-rubber nanocomposite fabrication. Our findings are supported by molecular characterization (solid state 29Si NMR, 1H NMR and TGA), and scanning electron microscopy. In addition, the impact of these silica pre-treatments on a nanocomposite's mechanical properties was evaluated using dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA).
