Induced accelerated autocondensation of polyflavonoid tannins for phenolic polycondensates. I. 13C‐NMR, 29Si‐NMR, X‐ray, and polarimetry studies and mechanism

Abstract Polyflavonoid tannins have been found to autocondense and harden when in presence of small amounts of SiO 2 at high pH. Small amounts of boric acid and AICI 3 were found to have the same effect. The mechanism of tannin autocondensation to hardening was found to depend on the Lewis acid behaviour of the additives used. Such mechanism involves Lewis acid acceptance of electrons from the ether oxygen of the flavonoid unit pyran ring with subsequent facilitation of base‐induced heterocycle opening. The reactive C2 site created by heterocycle opening proceeds to autocondense with the reactive A‐ring of a flavonoid unit on another chain denying to the flavonoid the possibility of intramolecular rearrangements to catechinic acid and phlobatannin which occur in model compounds. Si has been shown to pass through a coordination state of 5, by CP‐MAS 29 Si‐NMR. The portion of Si, which has not been able to complete the reaction due to premature hardening, remains attached to the flavonoids, in this coordination state, in the hardened network. The Si portion, which has completed the reaction and caused the hardening, reverts instead to SiO 2 and is detached from the flavonoid. The SiO 2 , H 3 BO 3 , and AICI 3 mechanism shows that their presence also reverses the relative facility of cleavage between interflavonoid bond and heterocycle opening in mainly procyanidin and profisetinidin tannins. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.