Highly SelectiveC-Silylation of Fatty Acid Methyl Esters

Silylation of triacylglycerol: an easy route to new biosiloxanes

A new approach to functionalize triacylglycerol fish oils has been achieved. For the first time, hydrosilylation of various terminal and internal C=C double bonds in ethylenic triacylglycerol was performed under radical initiation sequence, which, after ethanolysis, gave the sol-gel processable triethoxysilyltriacylglycerol P(2). By the use of silyltriflate, new metalated triglycerides P(3), in which silyl fragments are C-bonded in alpha-position to glycerol groups, were synthesized. The sol-gel hydrolysis and polycondensation of triethoxysilyltriacylglycerol led to hybrid materials in which organic and inorganic moieties are covalently linked. These materials open new applications in drug delivery and pharmaceutical formulation.