Molecular insight into the non-innocence of a silica-support: the structure of a platinum-silsesquioxane derivative

The cyclooctadiene ligand within the square planar Pt(ii) complex [PtCl2(C8H12)] undergoes nucleophilic attack from a siloxo group of the thallated polyhedral silsesquioxane [(c-C5H9)(7)Si7O9(OSiMe3)(OTl)(2)], to yield [(c-C5H9)(14)Si14O18(OSiMe3)(2)O-4(eta(4)-C8H12)PtTl2]; given the analogy between the silsesquioxane moiety and a silica surface, the presence of an SiO-C bond between the siloxo-cage and the Pt-bound olefinic ring is significant in the context of surface non-innocence in heterogeneous catalysis.