Design of epoxy-silica hybrids based on cycloaliphatic diol of natural origin for conservation of lithic materials

This work is focused on the development of sustainable stone conservation materials, based on BPA-free epoxysilica hybrid resins, with consolidating and hydrophobic properties, for long-term treatments. For this purpose, a cycloaliphatic diol, with minor health and environmental associated issues with respect to classic phenolic derivatives, was selected to synthesize a BPA-free bio-based epoxy resins precursor, 2,2,4,4-tetramethyl-1,3-cyclobutanediol diglycidylether (CBDO-DGE). Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and Raman spectroscopies were employed to assess the synthesis and clean-up procedures. In addition, both 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR in solution were used to ascertain the structure and purity of the bio-based epoxy. The development of the epoxy thermosets by 1,8- diaminooctane (DAO), triethylenetetramine (TETA) and 5-amino-1,3,3-trimethylcyclohexanemethylamine (IPDA) curing agents was followed by attenuated total reflection infrared (ATR FT-IR) and Raman spectroscopies, whereas their suitability as organic counterpart of the hybrids was established by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric (TGA) measurements. In addition, epoxy-silica hybrids were obtained by exploiting sol-gel technology, carrying out the epoxy hardening reactions also in the presence of (3-glycidyloxypropyl)trimethoxysilane (GPTMS) and octyltriethoxysilane (OcTES), as silica-forming additives. To investigate the properties of the resulting hybrid materials imparted by the selection of the different reactants, various blends were studied by a combination of scanning electron microscopy/energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), ATR FT-IR and Raman analysis. Furthermore, the assessment of the hybrids tunability as materials for stone conservation was ascertained in terms of thermostability and hydrophobicity by TG-DTA, DSC, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and contact angle measurements.