Structure of hybrid materials containing natural and synthetic organic compounds

Abstract

Hybrid materials are innovative and extensively studied, because of the incorporation organic compounds in inorganic network, combining their properties. The properties of the hybrid material can be controlled by variation of the nature and amounts of the components. Recently, the sol-gel synthesis of hybrid materials has been extensively studied due to the possibility of controlling the chemical conditions, as well as it allows the introduction of organic and bioorganic molecules within the inorganic network. In the present work, results on sol-gel synthesis and structure of hybrid materials containing silica and natural (chitosan) and synthetic (methyl methacrylate) organic compounds are described and discussed. Two and three component hybrid materials were prepared by mixing inorganic precursor - tetraethylortosilicate with the organic components. The structure of the obtained hybrid materials was studied by XRD, FT-IR, SEM and ARYL With the help of SEM the presence of spheres in the synthesized material was observed. The presence of a heterogeneous structure with well-defined nano units was suggested by AFM studies.