Monomer recycling for vulcanized silicone rubbers in the form of cyclosiloxane monomers. Role of acid buffers

The KOH-catalyzed depolymerization of vulcanized silicone rubbers to reproduce cyclosiloxane monomers was studied. First, the depolymerization was carried out in toluene with varying amounts of KOH to find that the yield of monomers first increased and then decreased with the increment of KOH, the highest yield was 65% at the molar ratio KOH/(Si–O) units=0.08. At the molar ratio 0.13 in the absence of solvent, the monomers yield was 46%. However, when an acid buffer such as KH2PO4 and KCOOC6H4COOH was added after the KOH-catalyzed depolymerization was over, the product yield was increased remarkably to more than 80%.