Polymer grafted on porous silica as supports for catalysts and reagents

Abstract
The main part of the paper is dealing with 4 routes used to anchor chloromethyl groups to polymer grafted onto porous silica. The most efficient route involves first, grafting of a coupling agent bearing one function active in radical polymerization as initiator, comonomer or transfer agent, and then polymerization of vinylbenzyl chloride. The grafting efficiency, the homogeneity of the grafting process and the conformation of the grafted polymer are discussed, depending on the experimental conditions. Other grafted polymers are 1,2‐polybutadiene and poly(phenylsiloxane). For catalytic applications, chloromethyl groups are reacted with ephedrin and the resulting solid is used for benzaldehyde alkylation with diethylzinc. On the other hand, grafted poly(phenylsiloxane) is sulfonated and used for esterification and phenol alkylation by dodecene.