BRIDGED POLYSILSESQUIOXANES. HIGHLY POROUS HYBRID ORGANIC-INORGANIC MATERIALS

This contribution reviews a new family of inorganic-organic hybrid materials that are assembled by sol-gel polymerization of polyfunctional molecular building blocks. These bridged polysilsesquioxanes are three-dimensional network materials that are distinguished by incorporation of an organic fragment as an integral component of the network. The intimate association of the organic and inorganic phase, a true molecular composite, coupled with the variability of the organic component, permits engineering of both chemical and physical properties of the material. The paper reviews bridged polysilsesquioxanes, arylene-bridged polysilsesquioxanes, alkylene-bridged polysilsesquioxanes; and their applications.