Soluble organosilicon micronetworks with spatially confined reaction sites

Extremely small monodisperse micronetworks have potential applications as molecular containers or reaction vessels. The advantages of the sol-gel synthesis reported here, involving endcapping with Si-O-SiR3 groups, are pointed out and the characterization of the resulting spherical particles (radius between 5 nm and 20 nm), see Figure, is described. The variety of functional groups and the high density of potential reaction sites are stressed.