CONTROLLED CLEAVAGE OF R8SI8O12 FRAMEWORKS - A REVOLUTIONARY NEW METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING PRECURSORS TO HYBRID INORGANIC-ORGANIC MATERIALS

Cube-octameric polyhedral silsesquioxanes (R8Si8O12) react with strong acids (HX) to produce R8Si8O11X2 frameworks resulting from selective cleavage of one Si-O-Si linkage; subsequent hydrolysis affords R8Si8O1 1(OH)(2) frameworks derived from the net hydrolysis of one Si-O-Si lin kage in R8Si8O12; these results demonstrate for the first time that re adily available R8Si8O12 frameworks can be used as precursors to incom pletely condensed Si/O frameworks and have important implications for the manufacture of hybrid inorganic-organic materials based on discret e polyhedral clusters of silicon and oxygen.