Silylation of triacylglycerol: an easy route to new biosiloxanes

A new approach to functionalize triacylglycerol fish oils has been achieved. For the first time, hydrosilylation of various terminal and internal CC double bonds in ethylenic triacylglycerol was performed under radical initiation sequence, which, after ethanolysis, gave the sol–gel processable triethoxysilyltriacylglycerol P2. By the use of silyltriflate, new metalated triglycerides P3, in which silyl fragments are C-bonded in α-position to glycerol groups, were synthesized. The sol–gel hydrolysis and polycondensation of triethoxysilyltriacylglycerol led to hybrid materials in which organic and inorganic moieties are covalently linked. These materials open new applications in drug delivery and pharmaceutical formulation.