Folding silicon chains

A series of exception has been found recently with bridged alkoxysilanes. Bis(triaIkoxysilyl)alkanes with Q or Cg bridging alkylene chains typically phase separate against 50-70 fold molar amount of water relative to silicon under acidic conditions (Nakanishi et al., 2002). Relatively long alkylene chains buried in the siloxane network only moderately contribute to enhance the phase separation tendency of the polymerizing oligomers. 

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