Langmuir, Vol.21, No.5, 1908-1916, 2005
Blends of amphiphilic trisilanolisobutyl-POSS and phosphine oxide substituted poly(dimethylsiloxane) at the air/water interface
Mixtures of a polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane, trisilanolisobutyl-POSS, and a polar silicone, poly(dimethyl-co-methylvinyl-co-methyl, 2-diphenyl phosphine oxide ethyl) siloxane (PDMS-PO), spread as Langmuir monolayers at the air/water interface are used to examine the surface phase behavior and aggregation of trisilanolisobutyl-POSS as a function of silicone composition. Analyses of the surface pressurearea per monomer (II-A) isotherms in terms of the collapse pressures and excess Gibbs free energies of mixing indicate the monolayers form slightly negative deviation mixtures. Direct observations of surface morphology with Brewster angle microscopy in the collapsed regime reveal that the governing factor for aggregation is the collapse II of the component with a stronger affinity for water. In trisilanolisobutyl-POSS/PDMS-PO blends, POSS aggregates as discrete domains and does not coalesce into larger aggregates or network like structures for <80 wt % POSS, a feature that is vastly different from a previous study of POSS blended with regular poly(dimethylsiloxane).