Raman and Infrared Study of Metal Alkoxides During Sol-Gel Process

ABSTRACTOrganic additives are commonly used in sol-gel chemistry [1]. They can operate as stabilizers of reactive metal alkoxides [2] towards hydrolysis or as drying control chemical additives (such as dimethylformamide). These organic compounds and the by-products of sol-gel reactions can drastically modify the physical properties of final oxide materials, so that it is necessary to optimize the use of these additives. The first steps of hydrolysis of metal alkoxides stabilized by organic additives have been studied by many sophisticated analytical techniques which are difficult to use at technical level and often strongly alter the sol-gel reactions [3]. We chose to use FT-Raman and Infrared spectrocopies, which allow to remain as close as possible of the sol-gel process without altering it. The first steps of hydrolysis of group (IVb) metal alkoxides, more particularly titanium, modified by chlorides, carboxylic acids and alkanolamines have been investigated.