Highly Efficient Catalytic Route for the Synthesis of Functionalized Silsesquioxanes

• Published in: Inorganic chemistry Vol. 56; no. 15; pp. 9337 - 9342
• Main Authors: Kaźmierczak, Joanna, Kuciński, Krzysztof, Hreczycho, Grzegorz
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 07.08.2017
• ISSN: 0020-1669; 1520-510X; 1520-510X
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.7b01504

Silsesquioxanes (POSS) have recently become the subject of growing interest in many branches of materials chemistry. Despite this great interest, no direct metal-catalyzed method to cap the corner of the POSS molecules has yet been proposed. In this report, we present a highly efficient method for the synthesis of functionalized silsesquioxanes mediated by scandium­(III) triflate, which opens up the possibility of introducing a wide variety of functional groups into this class of organosilicon compounds under mild conditions with excellent yields. We also investigated the differences in the activity of the Lewis acid (Sc­(OTf)3) and the hidden Brønsted acid (TfOH) generated in situ from triflates as catalysts in the functionalization of silsesquioxanes. What is more, this solution provides an efficient corner-capping reaction and other functionalizations to obtain silsesquioxane derivatives which are often not possible to synthesize with good yields, efficiency, and chemoselectivity using conventional methods.