Transparent and Dense Ladder-Like Alkylene-Bridged Polymethylsiloxane Coating with Enhanced Water Vapor Barrier Property

Organic-inorganic hybrid composites have been well-studied as water vapor barrier materials for their long diffusion length of water vapor in coatings which can be realized by improving the aspect ratio of inorganic components and regularity of nanostructure in coatings. In this paper, dense organic-inorganic hybrid coating based on ladder-like alkylene-bridged polymethylsiloxane (ABPMS) was successfully fabricated through the hydrosilylation reaction between polymethylhydrosiloxane and diene (1,5-hexadiene or 1,7-octadiene) in toluene under Pt/C catalysis. Its ladder-like structure was verified by ²⁹Si magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR, ¹³C MAS NMR, and in-plane and out-of-plane glance-incident X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) techniques. Its corresponding coating showed excellent water vapor barrier ability for a typical water-soluble crystal, potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP). When treated in 50% relative humidity (RH) condition at 25 °C for 8 months, the ABPMS coating with 100 nm thickness displayed a very low transmittance loss of 1.6% compared with the high transmittance loss of 10% for uncoated KDP. Moreover, the ABPMS coating showed good ultraviolet radiation resistance, thermal stability, low mechanical property, and excellent compatibility with hydrophobic antireflective (AR) coatings.