Hydrolysis kinetics of silane coupling agents studied by near-infrared spectroscopy plus partial least squares model

A method of Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy combined with partial least squares (PLS) model was successfully applied to investigate the hydrolysis kinetics of four kinds of silane coupling agents (phenyltriethoxysilane, vinyltriethoxysilane, 3-mercaptopropyltriethoxysilane, 3-chloropropyltriethoxysilane) in an acid-catalyzed EtOH system. The fast scanning speed and high sensitivity of the FT-NIR spectroscopy, and the powerful data processing ability of the PLS, enabled the method to quantitatively and accurately catch the fast changing H₂O concentration during the hydrolysis processes without delay, realizing the study of the fast-paced hydrolysis reactions of the silane coupling agents. The results showed that electrophilic substitution occurred in the hydrolysis reactions, which followed second-order reactions and greatly depend on the catalyst concentration and reaction temperature. The hydrolysis rate constants, activation energy, and Arrhenius Frequency factors were gained. In conclusion, the FT-NIR PLS model is a powerful tool for hydrolysis kinetics researching of the silane coupling agents.