Chiral enantiopure organosilane precursors for the synthesis of periodic mesoporous organosilicas

The manuscript describes synthesis of new chiral organosilica networks starting from modified readily available enantiopure substances such as sugars and amino acids. We report on the successful preparation of robust all-chiral organosilicas by polymerization of the homochiral monomers. When the homochiral organosilane monomers were polymerized in mixtures of polar organic solvents and water in the presence of hydrochloric acid or tetrabutylammonium fluoride as catalysts, mainly spherical microparticles were obtained due to emulsification of the hydrophobic monomers in these mixtures. Polycondensation of the chiral organosilanes in the presence of Pluronic P123 as a template produced ordered mesoporous networks. The new all-chiral materials were characterized by SEM, STEM, BET, SAXS, IR, NMR and TGA.