| My thesis dissertation mainly involves investigation of catalytic efficiency of Pt-nanoclusters in various transformations including hydrosilylation and hydrogermylation of functional alkynes, hydrolytic oxidation of organosilanes and functionalization of polybutadienes. Hydrosilylation and hydrogermylation of various functional alkynes were studied in presence of Pt-nanoclusters. Studies revealed that Pt-nanocluster possesses excellent catalytic activity in both hydrosilylation and hydrogermylation reactions tolerating the presence of variety of functional group on the alkynes such as -NH2, COOH, -CN, -F, -OMe etc. The catalytic activity of Pt-nanoclusters on the hydrolytic oxidation were studied using a variety of functional mono and di-hydrosilanes, where most of the hydrosilanes smoothly converted to corresponding silanols without formation of detectable amount siloxanes. Functionalization of polybutadienes was achieved using Pt-nanoclusters catalyzed hydrosilylation reactions. A series of important functional groups such as linear, cyclic and polyhedral oligosiloxane and ferrocene were successfully introduced into the polymers. The microstructures and thermal properties of the functionalized polymers were characterized using multinuclear NMR, GPC and TGA-DTA studies. The morphology of these polymers was investigated using various EM techniques (TEM and SEM) and AFM. The studies revealed self-assembled nanostructured formation with ferrocene and siloxy functionalized polymers. |
