Catalyst-Free Preparation of Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxanes Containing Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Mesoporous Nanocomposites

A catalyst-free, one-pot method of preparing novel polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS) containing organic-inorganic hybrid mesoporous nanocomposite at room temperature is reported. Nitrogen sorption analyses gave us a specific surface area of 500.931 m(2)/g with a pore volume of 0.563 mL/g and an average pore size of 3.84 nm. The combined results of Fourier transform infrared and solid Si-29-NMR spectroscopy clearly show that the POSS building block was successfully woven into the porous nanostructure without obvious alteration of the characteristics and structure. The material showed good thermal stability. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 121: 97-101, 2011