Investigations into the utility of high-surface area silica pellets as potential solid-phase synthesis supports

Grace-Davidson silica pellets (SMR-057-015) are found to be optimal for surface grafting of (RO)3Si(CH2)3FG reagents. While loadings of up to 2.1 mmol g−1 can be attained (ca. 0.05 mmol per pellet) access of further reagents to the graft sites is problematic above loadings of 0.8 mmol g−1. 13C CPMAS NMR studies may be carried out on individual pellets (using natural abundance substrates) and the resulting spectra are diagnostic in identifying successful subsequent coupling reactions.