Facile synthesis of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes with excellent thermosetting, fibrous and crystalline properties

The development of multifunctional polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS) that are more serialized than traditional POSS is essential to reduce the economic investment and expand the category of high-performance POSS. This work employed a simple one-step method to synthesize a series of different physical states of methacryloxypropyl-phenyl POSS (AcPhPOSS). The FTIR, NMR and MS results showed that the products were mainly composed of regular T₈, T₁₀ and T₁₂ cage-like structures, and the outer periphery of the AcPhPOSS cage carried different proportions of flexible methacryloxypropyl (R₁) and rigid phenyl (R₂) groups. In addition, the curable, fibrous, and crystalline properties of liquid, semi-solid, and powder AcPhPOSS were studied through thermal curing, electrospinning, and crystallization methods, respectively. The results showed that AcPhPOSS in three different states, especially AcPhPOSS@1:0 (liquid), AcPhPOSS@1:3 (semi-solid) and AcPhPOSS@0:1 (powder), exhibited good thermal curing properties, fiber and crystallization, respectively. Hence, this work proposes a facile strategy for producing multifunctional materials with good curing properties, fiber-forming properties, and crystallinity, which have broad application potential in thermosetting resins, fiber materials, and single crystal materials.