Polyfunctional cubic silsesquioxanes as building blocks for organic/inorganic hybrids

✍ Scribed by Richard M. Laine; Chunxin Zhang; Alan Sellinger; Lisa Viculis

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 436 KB
• Volume: 12
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0268-2605
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0739(199810/11)12:10/11<715::aid-aoc778>3.0.co;2-0

✦ Synopsis

Cubic silsesquioxanes, [RSiO 1.5 ] x , potentially offer access to organic/inorganic hybrids wherein the exact shape, size and mechanical properties of the inorganic component are perfectly defined. Furthermore, by tailoring the organic functionality bound to silicon, the inorganic/ organic interface can also be perfectly defined. Finally, careful selection of the polymerizable groups in the organic moieties can provide goodto-excellent control of the crosslinked density or degree of polymerization of the resulting hybrid materials. Thus, cubic silsesquioxanes may be exceptional model materials for inorganic/organic hybrids. Methods of synthesizing cubes with liquid-crystalline and/or polymerizable organic moieties are described. Some thermal properties are discussed. The catalytic copolymerization of the octavinyldimethylsiloxy-functionalized cube with the octahydridodimethylsiloxy-functionalized cube to produce a material with well-defined microporosity and high surface area is described.