Enantioselective silyl protection of alcohols promoted by a combination of chiral and achiral Lewis basic catalysts.

ABSTRACT: Catalytic enantioselective monosilylations of diols and polyols furnish valuable alcohol-containing molecules in high enantiomeric purity. These transformations, however, require high catalyst loadings (20-30 mol%) and long reaction times (2-5 days). Here, we report that a counterintuitive strategy involving the use of an achiral co-catalyst structurally similar to the chiral catalyst provides an effective solution to this problem. A combination of seemingly competitive Lewis basic molecules can function in concert such that one serves as an achiral nucleophilic promoter and the other performs as a chiral Brønsted base. On the addition of 7.5-20 mol% of a commercially available N-heterocycle (5-ethylthiotetrazole), reactions typically proceed within one hour, and deliver the desired produc

SUBMITTER: Manville N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4001701 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature