Soluble organosilicon micronetworks with spatially confined reaction sites

Extremely small monodisperse micronetworks have potential applications as molecular containers or reaction vessels. The advantages of the sol‐gel synthesis reported here, involving endcapping with Si‐O‐SiR3 groups, are pointed out and the characterization of the resulting spherical particles (radius between 5 nm and 20 nm), see Figure, is described. The variety of functional groups and the high density of potential reaction sites are stressed.