Synthesis of Silane-Modi!ed ECO (SECO). A solvent-free synthesis has been employed to functionalize the ECO with the silica precursor (APTES) in the presence of a catalyst (PTSA) to create silane-modi!ed ECO (SECO). SECO was synthesized by charging ECO, APTMS, and PTSA into a two-necked "ask round- bottomed "ask equipped with a temperature sensor and nitrogen inlet. The reactant mixture was slowly heated to 70 °C and the temperature maintained under a nitrogen atmosphere for complete reaction of epoxy groups. The reaction was monitored periodically by FTIR analysis. The reaction condition for thesynthesis of SECO was chosen according to previous study done by Biswas et al. to functionalize diethylamine moiety on epoxidized soybean oil. SECO has been synthesized using di$erent molar ratios of epoxy to amine groups. SECO with di$erent molar ratio of amine to epoxy groups is encoded as SECOx, where the digit x implies a ratio of amine to epoxy.