Antioxidant silicone oils from natural antioxidants

Natural antioxidants, such as vitamin E and eugenol, once grafted to silicone oils maintain their antioxidant activity and dilute the quantity of silicone needed for a given application. Antioxidants are important mediators of radical processes. Nature exploits a variety of antioxidants, including vitamins, to moderate oxidation in living systems. Silicone oils and elastomers, widely used in personal care and biomedical applications, are rather unreactive under redox conditions and can therefore host such reactions. We report that phenolic antioxidants, including derivatives of vitamins A and E, and eugenol are readily tethered to silicone oils. These natural constituents dilute the energetic toll required to make silicones while delivering antioxidant properties to the product silicone oils.