Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 March 2011
Despite the huge amount of experimental investigations dedicated to the grafting of organoalkoxysilanes on silica, the characterization of covalent linkages remains a difficult task from a spectroscopic point of view. In most cases, the formation of a covalent link is taken for granted and not discussed. 29Si NMR, IR or UV spectroscopies are commonly used to study the modification of silica surface. Herein we report an unambiguous method to evidence the formation of covalent links. It is based on NMR spectroscopy analysis coupled with a rigorous synthetic grafting protocol.