Figure 1.

Schematic of the reaction scheme of hydrolysis and condensation kinetics of tri-alkoxysilanes under acidic and basic conditions in aqueous media, along with a numerical reaction scheme [11]. Here, (300), (030), and (003) represent the -OR, -OH, and -OSi functionalities, respectively, around a single Si atom. The neat silane consists of three alkoxy groups (300), which under acidic conditions are sequentially hydrolyzed to three hydroxyl groups (030), which may subsequently condense to produce three siloxane bonds around the Si center (003).