title: Octakis(3-azidopropyl)octasilsesquioxane: a versatile nanobuilding block for the efficient preparation of highly functionalized cube-octameric polyhedral oligosilsesquioxane frameworks through click assembly.
abstract: A one-step synthesis of octakis(3-azidopropyl)octasilsesquioxane from commercially available octakis(3-aminopropyl)octasilsesquioxane has been developed through a highly efficient diazo-transfer reaction under very mild conditions. Nonaflyl azide is shown to be a safer, cheaper, and more efficient reagent for this transformation than the better known and generally used diazo-transfer reagent triflyl azide. Octakis(3-azidopropyl)octasilsesquioxane is an excellent nanobuilding block that can be readily octafunctionalized with a range of terminal alkynes by copper(I)-catalyzed 1,3-dipolar azide-alkyne cycloaddition to provide new functional nanocages, maintaining a perfect 3D cubic symmetry. The mildness, simplicity, and efficiency of this approach have been demonstrated in the preparation of a glyco-polyhedral oligosilsesquioxane (POSS) conjugate and a BODIPY-POSS cluster (BODIPY = boron dipyrromethene).
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Química Orgánica General, CSIC, Juan de La Cierva, 3, 28006 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Beatriz
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Trastoy
authors.forename: M Eugenia
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Pérez-Ojeda
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sastre
authors.forename: Jose Luis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Chiara