Interlinkage of a siliconoid with a silsesquioxane : en route to a molecular model system for silicon monoxide

Abstract

A new potential model system for silicon monoxide (SiO) is synthesized by the interlinkage of an unsaturated silicon cluster (siliconoid) with a polyhedral silsequioxane cage. Two derivatives with variable linker size are obtained by the corner-capping reaction of Ph7T7(ONa)3 with a trichlorosilane featuring a remote benzylic chloride functionality and the subsequent nucleophilic substitution of the latter by the anionic hexasilabenzpolarene-type Si6 siliconoid. Based on the recently proposed heterogeneous cluster model for the SiO structure, the stoichiometry between silicon and oxygen reiterates the suboxidic interface of the nano-composite in a Si : O ratio of 14 : 12.