Silicones—Basic chemistry and selected applications

Abstract The objective of this review is to provide a working knowledge of the chemistry of silicone compounds to the practicing chemist. Although silicone compounds have been known for over 50 yr, the chemistry of these materials remains elusive to the average formulating chemist. This is indeed unfortunate, since the chemistry of the silicon atom and resulting silicone compounds is every bit as wide in scope and rich in content as the chemistry of the carbon atom and the resulting surfactant chemistry upon which it is based. Only in the past decade has the use of silicone as a hydrophobic building block for the preparation of surfactants become common. The recent trend to combine silicone, fatty and polyoxyalkylene moieties in the same molecule has resulted in a plethora of new compounds with new properties.