Assessing site-isolation of amine groups on aminopropyl-functionalized SBA-15 silica materials via spectroscopic and reactivity probes

The average degree of separation and the accessibility of aminopropyl groups on SBA-15 silica materials prepared using different silane grafting approaches are compared. Three specific synthetic approaches are used: (1) the traditional grafting of 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane in toluene, (2) a protection/deprotection method using benzyl- or trityl-spacer groups, and (3) a cooperative dilution method where 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane and methyltrimethoxysilane are co-condensed on the silica surface as a silane mixture. The site-isolation and accessibility of the amine groups are probed via three methods: (a) evaluation of pyrene groups adsorbed onto the solids using fluorescence spectroscopy, (b) the reactions of chlorodimethyl(2,3,4,5-tetramethyl-2,4-cyclopentadien-1-yl)silane (Cp′Si(Me)2Cl) and chloro(cyclopenta-2,4-dienyl)dimethylsilane (CpSi(Me)2Cl) with the tethered amine sites, and (c) comparison of the reactivity of zirconium constrained-geometry-inspired catalysts (CGCs) prepared using the Cp′Si(Me)2-modified aminosilicas in the catalytic polymerization of ethylene to produce poly(ethylene). The spectroscopic probe of site-isolation suggests that both the protection/deprotection method and the cooperative dilution method yield similarly isolated amine sites that are markedly more isolated than sites on traditional aminosilica. In contrast, both reactivity probes show that the protection/deprotection strategy leads to more uniformly accessible amine groups. It is proposed that the reactivity probes are more sensitive tests for accessibility and site-isolation in this case.