Nanostructuring of ionic bridged silsesquioxanes

The transformation by hydrolysis/condensation of four new mesityl-(bis or tris)imidazolium-based alkoxysilane precursors into their corresponding bridged silsesquioxanes has been investigated. These precursors feature urea groups and either short or long alkylene chains, which are known to favor self-assembly. The most regular nanostructures were obtained by a combination of the tripodal precursors with C10H20 alkylene chains, as shown by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) analysis, independent of the reaction conditions.