Templating nanoporosity in organosilicates with well-defined branched macromolecules and block copolymers

One class of organic materials chosen as the template for the organic-inorganic hybrids was highly branched aliphatic polyesters. Derivatives of poly(ε-caprolactone) are ideally suited for such applications, since the functionality in the main chain and end-groups interact with the organosilicate to facilitate compatibilization of the dissimilar materials, and the organic polymer thermally decomposes and volatilizes quantitatively via an unzipping process. The approach used to the preparation of polyesters with complex molecular architectures is to use the surface functionality of dendritic aliphatic polyfunctional esters as initiators for the ring opening polymerization (ROP) of ε-caprolactone.