Amphiphilic Silicone Architectures via Anaerobic Thiol-Ene Chemistry

Despite broad application, few silicone-based surfactants of known structure or, therefore, surfactants have been prepared because of an absence of selective routes and instability of silicon es to acid and base. Herein the synthesis of a library of explicit silicone-poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) materials is reported. Pure silicone fragments were generated by the B(C₆F₅)₃-catalyzed condensation of alkoxysilanes and vinyl functionalized hydrosilanes. The resulting pure products were coupled to thiol-terminated PEG materials using photo generated radicals under anaerobic conditions.