Linear and star architecture methacrylate-functionalised PDMS

Methacrylate-terminated poly(dimethylsiloxane)s in both linear and star architectures have been produced through a time-efficient 1 pot, 2 stage reaction which involved hydrosilylation of small moleculesilanes with allyl methacrylate and subsequent equilibration of the product with octamethylcyclote-trasiloxane (D₄) in the presence of an acid catalyst. This synthetic route required only one work-upprocedure and the products were comparable to those produced by 2 step processes typically reportedin literature. All methacrylate-terminated products were approximately double the molar masses antic-ipated based on reagent loadings. This is thought to be due to redistribution of siloxane bonds in thepresence of the platinum hydrosilylation catalyst accompanied by a loss of silicon from the reaction byevaporation of dimethylsilane. It is believed that this is the first report of such siloxane equilibration occurring at room temperature.