A "corecoronae" type hybrid amphiphile, which contains urethane unit in the coronae was synthesized, and the monolayer property was studied. The hybrid amphiphile formed a liquidlike monolayer at the airwater interface. The urethane groups formed intramolecular hydrogen bonds.Recently, organicinorganic hybrid materials have attracted considerable attention because they show unique mechanical and physical properties.1 The organization of organic fragments and inorganic fragments at molecular levels is an important factor that determine their unique properties.2 The bottom-up approach such as layer-by-layer 3 and LangmuirBlodgett (LB) techniques can be used to assemble hybrid materials. 4 For manipulating molecules using LB technique, amphiphilic materials are required.5 Recently, we reported hybrid amphiphilic materials based on double-decker-shaped silsesquioxanes (DDSQ). 68 The hybrid amphiphiles are "corecoronae" type because they are composed of DDSQ as an inorganic core and di(ethylene glycol) (DEG)s as the organic coronae. We have reported that DDSQ with two (2DEGDDSQ) or four DEG (4DEGDDSQ) units form a uniform monolayer at the airwater interface.6 Moreover, a unique rod-like assembly was formed when a urethane group was attached at the end of DEG groups in 2DEGDDSQ.7 FT-IR spectroscopy indicated that strong intermolecular hydrogen bonding between the urethane groups induced the formation of a rod-like assembly. However, the properties of urethaneattached 4DEGDDSQ assembly were not reported. In this study, we synthesized 4DEGNHDDSQ, which contains a urethane group at the end of four DEG units. The urethane group was selected because urethane groups form strong hydrogen bonds. The effect of the hydrophilic end group on the monolayer property of the four-armed corecoronae-type amphiphile was studied.4DEGNHDDSQ was synthesized by direct hydrosilylation of DDSQ with di(ethylene glycol) vinyl ether, followed by the reaction of OH groups with ethyl isocyanate (Scheme 1).
9Direct hydrosilylation was carried out in toluene at 0°C using platinum(0)-1,3-divinyl-1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisiloxane (Karstedt's catalyst; 50 ppm) as catalyst. The crude product was purified by silica gel column chromatography eluted with THF/n-hexane. The purified compound was dissolved in toluene at 0°C and stirred in an argon atmosphere. Then, ethyl isocyanate was added dropwise into the reaction mixture. The reaction was carried out at room temperature for 1 day. Unreacted isocyanate was removed by evaporation. Figure 1 shows the FT-IR spectra of the initial compounds (4DEG DDSQ) and the obtained compound (4DEGNHDDSQ). The OH peak related to DEG units at 3444 cm ¹1 band shifts at 3343 cm ¹1 , which is attributed to the NH vibration in 4DEGNH DDSQ. Moreover, peaks related to the carbonyl peak appeared at 1720 and 1707 cm ¹1 ( Figure S2).10 1 H NMR spectrum of 4DEGNHDDSQ was recorded in CDCl 3 . The 1 H NMR spectrum of the product indicated the presence of NH (4.7 ppm) and CH 3 (1.1 ppm) and the disappearance of OH (2.0 ppm) ( Figure S1). 10...