Synthesis of Bifunctional Silsesquioxanes and Spherosilicates with Organogermyl Functionalities.

In this paper we present the synthesis of mixed bifunctional compounds of T8 H8 silsesquioxane and spherosilicate (HSiMe2 O)8 Si8 O12 derivatives via platinum-catalyzed hydrosilylation of alkenylgermanes and olefins. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first literature example of bifunctional compounds with organogermyl functionalities. Eleven mixed systems with a variety of substituents (Si-H, alkyl, germyl, epoxy, and hydroxy) were prepared and fully characterized by NMR spectroscopy. Additionally, our research includes a real-time FT-IR study of the synthesis of these bifunctional compounds of the general formula (R)8-m (GeR'3 (CH2 )n+2 R)m Si8 O12 . and (R''(CH2 )2 R)8-m (GeR'3 (CH2 )2 R)m Si8 O12 where m∼4.