Abstract
Pure bis-silylated dithienylethene (DTE) 3-(3,3,4,4,5,5-hexafluoro-2-(2-methyl-5-(triethoxysilyl)thiophen-3-yl)cyclopent-1-enyl)-2-methyl-5-(triethoxysilyl)thiophene was prepared from 3-(3,3,4,4,5,5-hexafluoro-2-(5-iodo-2-methylthiophen-3-yl)cyclopent-1-enyl)-5-iodo-2-methylthiophene by iodine-lithium exchange. The synthesis and purification method were optimized after many attempts of different coupling methods and purification techniques to ovoid the hydrolysis and self-condensation reaction and to obtain a pure product. The obtained bis-silylated dithienylethene (BS-DTE) is a versatile building block for potential applications, such as synthesis of new photochromic periodic mesoporous organosilica (PPMO). The structure of the obtained precursor was characterized by H-1, C-13 and Si-29 liquid NMR. Many attempts have been performed to prepare DTE-PMO but, the C-Si bond in the final material was fragile and could not resist to the hydrothermal treatment during the synthesis. The thermal stability of DTE-PMO will be studied in a future work.