Immobilization of biomolecules via ruthenium-catalyzed functionalization of the surface of silica with a vinylsilane

A new ruthenium complex catalyzed procedure for the efficient O-silylation of an SiO–H group on the silica surface of glass beads with controlled pores (CPG) using 1-trimethylsiloxy-3-dimethylvinylsilylpropane leading to Si–O–Si bond formation with the evolution of ethylene is described. The formed linker contains alkyl hydroxyl groups which can be reacted with a nucleoside phosphoramidite unit. The CPG support containing alkyl hydroxyl groups is successfully applied in automatic chemical synthesis of DNA fragments.