Remarkable improvement of organic-to-inorganic conversion of silicone rubber at elevated temperature through platinum-nitrogen catalytic system

Organosilicon materials with high capacity of organic-to-inorganic conversion at elevated temperature are always favorable in the field of high-temperature-resistant materials, flame retardant materials, chemical engineering and functional materials in electrical engineering. In this work, it was found out that the platinum-nitrogen catalytic system could obviously enhance the organic-to-inorganic conversion efficiency of silicone rubber (SiR) at elevated temperature. The residual rate of Pt/N/SiR (SiR containing 0.33 phr Karstedt's catalyst (Pt) and 2 phr nitrogenous silane (N)) at 1000 °C was significantly improved from 3.0% to 44.8% in comparison with SiR and its thermal stability was also enhanced. DLS, TEM and UV–vis absorption spectrometry revealed that the platinum in Karstedt's catalyst would aggregate at elevated temperature and deteriorate its catalytic activity for organic-to-inorganic conversion of SiR. And the addition of nitrogenous silane can efficiently inhibit the aggregation and retain the high catalytic efficiency of platinum. A thorough TG-FTIR study, together with SEM/EDX and XPS analyses suggested that the platinum-nitrogen system might suppress the intramolecular cyclic transition and enhance the radical coupling between polymer chains of SiR during thermal degradation, which resulted in the high capacity of organic-to-inorganic conversion of Pt/N/SiR at elevated temperature. •The Pt-N catalytic system could significantly improve the organic-to-inorganic conversion of SiR at elevated temperature.•The Pt in Karstedt's catalyst would aggregate at elevated temperature and resulted in decrease of its catalytic activity.•Nitrogenous silane could inhibit the aggregation and retain the high catalytic activity of the Pt in Karstedt's catalyst.•The mechanism of platinum-nitrogen catalytic system on organic-to-inorganic conversion of SiR was investigated.