Introduction of ferrocene-containing [2]rotaxanes onto siloxane, silsesquioxane and polysiloxanes via click chemistryElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Experimental section including synthesis of 2c and 4 as well as characterization data for compounds. CCDC reference numbers 888102. For ESI and crystallographic data in CIF or other electronic format see DOI: 10.1039/c2dt31406a

The reaction of N 3 (CH 2 ) 3 Si(OTMS) 3 (TMS = SiMe 3 ) with a dialkylammonium having hexynyl group 1 , [FcCH 2 NH 2 CH 2 C 6 H 4 -4-O(CH 2 ) 4 C&z.tbd;CH]PF 6 (Fc = Fe(C 5 H 4 )(C 5 H 5 )), in the presence of dibenzo[24]crown-8-ether (DB24C8) and [Cu{Fe(CN) 4 }]PF 6 catalyst yielded the [2]rotaxane containing the dialkylammonium unit terminated by a bulky silyl group. Azides with a silsesquioxane group react similarly to form the corresponding [2]rotaxanes having a bulky silsesquioxane end group. The azide-functionalized polysiloxane, [-O-SiMe{(CH 2 ) 3 N 3 }-] n [-O-SiMe 2 -] m also undergoes a click reaction with 1 to produce the side chain polyrotaxane. Cyclic voltammograms of these rotaxanes and 1 [(DB24C8) 1 ] show the Fe( ii )/Fe( iii ) redox at the same potential, but with different current depending on their molecular weights. Addition of PdCl 2 (MeCN) 2 to a solution of the side-chain polyrotaxane forms gel which regenerates the sol upon addition of PPh 3 . The ferrocene-containing [2]rotaxanes with silicone and silasesquioxane and poly[2]rotaxane with polysiloxane main chain were synthesized via end-capping strategy.