Method for producing ester-functional silanes

1. A process for producing silanes of formula I

R 1 —C(═O)—O—R 2 —SiR 3 3   (I)

comprising reacting at least one salt of a carboxylic acid of formula II

[R 1 —C(═O)—O] a [M a+ ]  (II)

with at least one silane of formula III

X—R 2 —SiR 3 3   (III)

to form a product mixture, and distilling the product mixture to provide a distillate containing at least one silane of formula I, wherein at least one high-boiling solvent HBS is present in the product mixture during at least a portion of said distilling,

wherein the HBS has a higher boiling point than the silane of formula I when measured at the pressure at which distilling is carried out,

wherein

X is a leaving group which is carboxylate substitutable,

R 1 is hydrogen or a monovalent C 1 -C 18 hydrocarbon radical which is unsubstituted or substituted with one or more groups Q, optionally interrupted by one or more heteroatoms,

Q when attached to an sp 3 -hybridized carbon atom is a hydrocarbonoxy, acyloxy, hydrocarboncarbonyl, carbonyl, hydrocarbonoxoy-carbonyl, hydrocarbonsulfide, acylsulfide, cyano or nitro group, and when attached to an sp 2 - or to an sp-hybridized carbon atom, is a hydrocarbonoxy, acyloxy, hydrocarboncarbonyl, carbonyl, hydrocarbonoxycarbonyl, hydrocarbonsulfide, acylsulfide, cyano or nitro group or has the meaning of X,

R 2 is a divalent C 1 -C 18 hydrocarbon group which is unsubstituted or substituted with one or more groups Q, and is optionally interrupted by one or more heteroatoms,

R 3 is hydrogen, or an unsubstituted or Q-mono- or -polysubstituted monovalent C 1 -C 18 hydrocarbon group, C 1 -C 18 hydrocarbonoxy group, Si 1 -Si 4 silane group or an Si 1 -Si 4 siloxy group which is optionally interrupted by one or more heteroatoms,

M a+ is an a-tuply positively charged cation, and

a is an integer not less than 1.

2. The process of claim 1 , wherein R 2 is selected from —CH 2 — or —CH 2 CH 2 CH 2 —.

3. The process of claim 1 , further comprising directly distilling the product mixture obtained by reacting the carboxylic acid salt of formula II with the silane of formula III without a prior filtration step.

4. The process of claim 1 , wherein the product mixture from the reaction of the carboxylic acid salt of formula II with the silane of formula III is distilled directly, without further intervening steps.

5. The process of claim 1 , which takes place in the presence of a catalyst.

6. The process of claim 5 , wherein the catalyst is a phase transfer catalyst.

7. The process of claim 5 , wherein the catalyst is a salt of a bromide or iodide which activates the group X—R 2 in the silane of formula III by substitution of X by bromide or iodide.

8. The process of claim 1 , wherein less than 80% of solvents used in the process have a boiling point in the distillative step which is equal to or below that of the silane of formula I, calculated in weight % based on the sum total of all solvents used in the process, wherein the boiling points are measured at the pressure at which distilling takes place.

9. The process of claim 1 , wherein the proportion of solvents which meet the boiling point criteria for HBS is at least 20%, based in weight % on the sum total of all solvents used in the process.

10. The process of claim 8 , wherein no solvent with a boiling point equal to or below that of the silane of formula I is used.

11. The process of claim 9 , wherein no solvent with a boiling point equal to or below that of the silane of formula I is used.