• General

  Silicones

  Posted by crisbaysauli on January 3, 2017 at 3:32 am

  Happy New Year everyone! Hope you had a wonderful holiday season.

  My question may seem very elementary, but I’d really appreciate it if someone validates. What class of compounds are silicones? I mean are they esters? Ethers?

  Most silicone-free products use either esters or ethers. So I’m wondering, is silicone not an ester or ether? If it’s not, then what is it?

  David replied 7 years, 10 months ago 5 Members · 5 Replies

  • chemistry
  • ingredients
  • silicone-free
• 5 Replies

• 

  belassi

  Member

  January 3, 2017 at 4:05 am

  They are characterised by repeating Si-O-Si molecules. Dimethicone, which is a silicone oil, is also known as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) so,  we can see from its name that it has a siloxane group, and attached to that is methane or CH3 in the formula: (C2H6OSi)n where ‘n’ refers to the ‘poly’ part of it.  Cyclopentasiloxane has a ring structure of Si-O-Si with CH3 groups attached all the way around. Technically, I think it’s a polymer?

• 

  Bill_Toge

  Member

  January 3, 2017 at 8:20 am

  it’s a polysiloxane, i.e. it has a fundamental structure comprising multiple Si-O bonds

  the carbon equivalent would be a polyacetal, but due to the difference in chemistry between carbon and silicon it would be difficult, if not impossible, to synthesise such a compound and have it remain stable; silicon readily catenates (forms chains) with oxygen, while carbon does not

• 

  johnb

  Member

  January 3, 2017 at 9:04 am

  Google and Wikipedia are your friends
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicone

• 

  crisbaysauli

  Member

  January 4, 2017 at 8:52 am

  Thank you @johnb, I just really want this to be validated by experts in the field. @Bill_Toge and @Belassi have been very helpful. Thank you.

• 

  David

  Member

  January 5, 2017 at 9:01 pm

  and there are also silicone esters…

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