Patent ID: 8765899

Claim:
A silicon polymer material which comprises an organic-inorganic siloxane material that has a backbone containing —Si—C—Si— bonds along with one or several of the following bonds: —Si—C—, —O—Si—C— and —Si—O— and optionally containing chromophore groups attached directly or via a hydrocarbon, amine, or carbonyl linker to at least a part of the silicon atoms, said polymer material being selected from: (A) a polymer comprising residues derived from precursors having formulas R 1 —R 4 —SiX 3 I and R 1 SiX 2 —R 4 —SiX 3 II and (B) a polymer comprising residues derived from a monomer according either or both of formulas III and IV: R 2 —R 4 —SiX 3 III and R 2 SiX 2 —R 4 —SiX 3 IV wherein R 1 is independently selected from the group of hydrogen, hydroxyl, linear and branched alkyl, alkoxy, alkenyl, alkynyl, polycyclic and aryl groups having 1 to 6 rings, at least one of the R 1 s of the polymer being a chromophore group, provided that no chromophore group is phenyl; R 2 is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, hydroxyl, linear and branched alkyl and cycloalkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, (alk)acrylate and alkoxy and aryl groups having 1 to 6 rings, provided that R 2 is not phenyl, each X represents independently a hydrolysable group or a hydrocarbon residue; and R 4 stands for a bivalent hydrocarbon linker, such as an alkylene group —CH 2 —, a phenylene group or polycyclic group, which optionally carries an organic substituent or mixtures thereof, said polymer material being obtained by hydrolyzing silane monomers including at least one disilane monomer species exhibiting at least one chromophore group attached to at least one of the silicon atoms of the disilane.