Infrared spectrometric analysis of hydrolysis reactions and condensation in sol-gel silica samples

The hydrolysis process and the condensation reaction in silica sol-gel prep ared samples under stoichiometric molar ratio H2O/TEOS = 1 were followed us ing infrared spectroscopy. The ratio of hydrolysis was ascribed to the diff erent species formed at the early stages of the gelation process. The behav ior of the different species (siloxane network as well as the organic side groups) during gel to glass transition, was determined from the FT-IR resul ts.