Colloids, polysilsesquioxane

A new family of polysilsesquioxane colloids was synthesized by hydrolytic condensation of different functional amphiphilic silanes without any additional surfactants [58-60]. To choose a suitable monosubstituted silane, we looked for the combination of a functional group, which would be able to interact with metal compounds, and a hydrophobic part, which would self-assemble in an aqueous medium. We expected that a sol-gel reaction of such a precursor in water would yield multifunctional materials with internal ordering if the hydrophobic tail is sufficiently long. In this way, polysilsesquioxane colloids... 

This chapter illustrates our approaches in the design of metal nanocomposites, both in bulk and in solution. The key advantages of soluble systems, especially if they retain solubility alter nanoparticle formation, are their potential use for raicroheterogeneous catalysis and magnetic liquids or formation of thin deposited or free-standing films (the latter were obtained with block copolymer micelles and some functional polysilsesquioxane colloids). These opportunities... 

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