The vibrational spectra of monosubstituted spherosiloxanes of the type
RH7Si8O12 can be understood as a superposition of the spectral featur
es of H7Si8O12 and of the substituent R. We show this for the FT-Raman
spectra of RH7Si8O12 with R = -CH2-CH2-C6H5 and -CH = CH-C6H5. The fo
rce fields of H8Si8O12 and of the organic substituent, ethylbenzene an
d styrene, respectively, were combined and normal coordinate analysis
was applied. The spectra of phenethyl-H7Si8O12 and styryl-H7Si8O12 wer
e correlated with the spectrum of H8Si8O12. The Si-X stretching freque
ncies in the spherosiloxanes are larger than in most other siloxane co
mpounds. We have shown that this is due to the different X-Si-O-Si con
formations, which are anti and syn, respectively, and can be explained
by the dependence of the bond order on the X-Si-O-Si dihedral angle.