Production Process of Silicones

The production of silicones involves several steps, from the extraction of raw materials to the synthesis of silicone polymers. Here’s a general overview of the silicone production process:

Step 1: Separate Silicon from Silica

• Natural compounds like silica are found all over the world. Almost every rock, clay, and sand on earth contains silica, which makes up over a quarter of the planet’s crust.
• In order to produce silicone, silicon must first be isolated from silica. In order to accomplish this, a large volume of quartz sand is heated up to 1800 degrees Celsius. As a result, pure, isolated silicon is obtained. In order to make fine powder, manufacturers grind it after it cools.

Step 2: Combine Powder With Methyl Chloride

• Mixing silicon powder with methyl chloride is the next step. Fluidized bed reactors are commonly used for this purpose.
• Methyl chlorosilane is formed, which contains atoms of chlorine as well as silicon.
• Dimethyldichlorosilane is the primary building block of silicone, and methyl chlorosilane consists of several compounds.

Step 3: Distil the Mixture

• Distillation process used to separate methyl chlorosilane’s components.
• The compounds contained in methyl chlorosilane can be used to make a variety of silicones.
• As each of these has a different boiling point, they can be separated by distillation, applying a different precise temperature to extract which one.

Step 4: Addition of Water

• Adding dimethyldichlorosilane to water causes hydrochloric acid and disilanol to separate after distillation.
• When the hydrochloric acid is applied, the disilanol is catalysed into polydimethylsiloxane.
• This also allows any air bubbles trapped in the solution to be released.

Step 5: Polymerization of the Silicone

• The polydimethylsiloxane molecule contains siloxane bonds.
• Depending on the properties of the final product, silicone can be polymerized in different ways before being poured into a silicone mold.

Silicones are a diverse family of synthetic polymers made up of Siloxane repeating units. Siloxane is a monomer that consists of silicon, oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen atoms. Silicones are colorless and rubber-like substances. They have a wide range of applications due to their unique combination of properties, including flexibility, heat resistance, low toxicity, and water repellency.

In this article, we will learn what are silicones, their sources, structure, formula, preparation, and applications along with their environmental implications.