Chemical flooding has been paid more and more attention by petroleum researchers for its high cost performance.New functional materials for oil displacement are one of the key issues in chemical flooding. In recent years，a novel monomer for oil displacement functional materials，polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane（POSS），has attracted extensive attention of material scientists because of its good three-dimensional structure and excellent physicochemical properties，which makes it an ideal basic unit for constructing organic/inorganic nanocomposite materials for oil displacement. Based on the preliminary work，this paper systematically reviews the synthesis methods of the nano-POSS monomers，and uses these methods to design and synthesize monofunctional，multifunctional and difunctional POSS monomers. These functional monomers are modified，grafted or polymerized to further design and synthesize organic/inorganic nanocomposite materials for oil displacement with powerful functions and various properties. The relationship between the structure and performance of POSS monomers and the application of POSS monomers in tertiary oil recovery are further elaborated. And the development trend and prospect of POSS monomer in new materials for oil displacement are also discussed.