Functionalized, unsymmetrical disiloxanes have a broad range of potential applications including healthcare products, functional materials such as liquid-crystalline polymers, or resins for the fabrication of high-refractive index and low-dielectric constant materials and components of biocompatible oils. Conventional approaches to unsymmetrical siloxanes involve condensation of silanols with chloro-, amino-, acyloxy-, or alkoxysilanes, and cohydrolysis of two chloro- or alkoxysilanes

Grzegorz Hreczycho, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland, has synthesized unsymmetrical disiloxanes by means of catalytic one-pot hydrolysis/O-silylation of alkoxysilanes with allylsilanes via silanol intermediates in the presence of scandium(III) trifluoromethanesulfonate under mild conditions. Unsaturated siloxane products are used as substrates for further functionalization through a catalytic hydrosilylation reaction.

• An Efficient Catalytic Approach for the Synthesis of Unsymmetrical Siloxanes,
  Grzegorz Hreczycho,
  Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2014.
  DOI: 10.1002/ejic.201402904