Interfacial behavior of water bound to zirconia/nanosilica with adsorbed poly(dimethylsiloxane)

The behavior of water bound to silica/zirconia (2.4 wt.%) (at hydration of 50 mg/g) bare or with adsorbed poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) (5 wt.%) strongly changes in chloroform medium in comparison with air. PDMS and CDCl 3 stimulate an increase in size of water structures (clusters, domains) to reduce the contact area ( S uw ) between water and hydrophobic polymer or weakly polar solvent. Adsorbed water does not completely cover the oxide surface in air since the surface area in contact with unfrozen water is S uw = 63 m 2 /g at the specific surface area of 290 m 2 /g. The S uw value decreases by 5–10 times for samples with PDMS in the chloroform or chloroform–acetonitrile dispersion media.