Abstract
The Brønsted acidity of the perfluorinated trialkoxysilanol {(F(3) C)(3) CO}(3) SiOH is more than 13 orders of magnitude higher than that of orthosilicic acid, Si(OH)(4) , and even more for most previously known silanols. It is easily deprotonated by simple amines and pyridines to give the conjugate silanolates [OSi{OC(CF(3) )(3) }(3) ](-) , which possess extremely short Si-O bonds, comparable to those of silanones.